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Price: 25 cents. 



Essays iiiid Umm 



— BY — 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. 

Wh j Am I An Agno^MG ? pn^^lej and i^gno^Mci^m. 

EMB^fc I^eqan. 
Count Tol^fsoi and "The I^i'euiszei' ^onata." 



A Series of articles from the North American Review. 



ONLY AUXHOR.IZEJD EDITION. 



C. P. FARRELL, PUBLISHER, 

NEW YORK. 

1897. 



AN ENTIRELY NEW EDITION. 



THE 




VOLXJMIJB OIVE IVOTV I1EA.I>Y. 

Vol U me 1 • Large octavo, 1431 pages, -wide margins, large 
and liandsome type; fine steel portrait; elegantly- 
bound in clottL, gold back and side stamps ; marble 
edges ; lialf morocco, fiill slieep, library style. 

THE friends and admirers of Mr. IngersoH's writings have long 
wanted just such a work as this. Hitherto, the publisher has 
been content with issuing each lecture, argument and other 
production separately. This volume brings together no less than 
nineteen of the Colonel's famous lectures on religious and patriotic 
subjects, and several of the orations, tributes and selections that have 
become classics in literature. It is a delight to find them here in 
such admirable and ready form for preservation and reference. The 
edition will doubtless soon be exhausted, and a second volume is 
promised that will lay the public under new obligation. A third, 
fourth, fifth, or sixth volume, each equally valuable, would not cover 
all Col. Ingersoll's writings and sayings, and those who treat them- 
selves to a copy of this first volume will want to see the series com- 
pleted — will not be happy until it is. 

The Gods; Humboldt; Individuality; Thomas Paine ; Heretics and Heresies; 
The Ghosts ; The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child ; The Centennial Oration, 
or Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1876. What I Know About Farming 
in Illinois ; Speech at Cincinnati in 1876, nominating James G. Blaine for the 
Presidency ; The Past Rises Before Me ; or, Vision of War, an extract from a 
Speech made at the Soldiers and Sailors Reunion at Indianapolis, Indiana, 
Sept. 21, 1876 ; A Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll ; The Grant Banquet ; Crimes 
Against Criminals ; Tribute to the Rev. Alexander Clarke. Some Mistakes of 
Moses ; What Must We Do to be Saved ? Blasphemy, Argument in the trial of 
C. B. Reynolds. Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by 
the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.; to which is added a Talmagian Catechism, 
and four Prefaces, which contain some of Mr. Ingersoll's best and brightest 
sayings. 

Price, postpaid, cloth $3.50 ; half morocco $5.00 ; fall sheep $5.00» 

Size of volume 10^ x 7^ x aj^, weight 6% lbs. 



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ESSAYS AND CRITICISMS 



— BY — 



Robert G. Ingersoll. '^^ 



Wt j Am I An ^gno^Mc ? pn^^lej and i^gno^tioi^. 
Count Tolstoi and "The I^i'Eutizei' ^onata." 



A Series of articles from the North American Review, 



-^ > 



ONLY AUTHORIZED EDITION. 



C. p. FARRELL, PUBLISHER, 

NEW YORK. 
1897. 



€■ 



s> 






entered according to Act of Congress, in the year iScjy, 

Ey C. r. TARRELL, 

la the Cnice of llie Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C 



WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? 

PART I. 
"With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls." 

THE same rules or laws of probability must govern in relig- 
ious questions as in others. There is no subje6l — and 
can be none — concerning which any human being is under any 
obligation to believe without evidence. Neither is there any 
intelligent being who can, by any possibility, be flattered by 
the exercise of ignorant credulity. The man who, without 
prejudice, reads and understands the Old and New Testaments 
will cease to be an orthodox Christian. The intelligent man 
who investigates the religion of any country without fear and 
without prejudice will not and cannot be a believer. 

Most people, after arriving at the conclusion that Jehovah is 
not God, that the Bible is not an inspired book, and that the 
Christian religion, like other religions, is the creation of man, 
usually say : ** There must be a Supreme Being, but Jehovah 
is not his name, and the Bible is not his word. There must be 
somewhere an over-ruling Providence or Power.*' 

This position is just as untenable as the other. He who can- 
not harmonize the cruelties of the Bible with the goodness of 
Jehovah, cannot harmonize the cruelties of Nature with the 
goodness and wisdom of a supposed Deity. He will find it 
impossible to account for pestilence and famine, for earthquake 
and storm, for slavery, for the triumph of the strong over the 
weak, for the countless victories of injustice. He will find it 
impossible to account for martyrs — for the burning of the good, 

<5) 



6 WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? 

the noble, the loving, by the ignorant, the malicious, and the 
infamous. 

How can the Deist satisfactorily account for the sufferings of 
women and children ? In what way will he justify religious 
persecution — the flame and sword of religious hatred ? Why 
did his God sit idly on his throne and allow his enemies to wet 
their swords in the blood of his friends ? Why did he not 
answer the prayers of the imprisoned, of the helpless ? And 
when he heard the lash upon the naked back of the slave, why 
did he not also hear the prayer of the slave ? And when chil- 
dren were sold from the breasts of mothers, why was he deaf 
to the mother's cry ? 

It seems to me that the man who knows the limitations of 
the mind, who gives the proper value to human testimony, is 
necessarily an Agnostic. He gives up the hope of ascertaining 
first or final causes, of comprehending the supernatural, or of 
conceiving of an infinite personality. From out the words 
Creator, Preserver, and Providence, all meaning falls. 

The mind of man pursues the path of least resistance, and 
the conclusions arrived at by the individual depend upon the 
nature and structure of his mind, on his experience, on heredi- 
tary drifts and tendencies, and on the countless things that 
constitute the difference in minds. One man, finding himself 
in the midst of mysterious phenomena, comes to the conclusion 
that all is the result of design ; that back of all things is an 
infinite personality — that is to say, an infinite man ; and he 
accounts for all that is by simply saying that the universe was 
created and set in motion by this infinite personality, and that 
it is miraculously and supernaturally governed and preserved. 
This man sees with perfect clearness that matter could not 
create itself, and therefore he imagines a creator of matter. 
He is perfectly satisfied that there is design in the world, and 
that consequently there must have been a designer. It does 



WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? 7 

not occur to him that it is necessary to account for the exist- 
ence of an infinite personality. He is perfectly certain that 
there can be no design without a designer, and he is equally 
certain that there can be a designer who was not designed. 
The absurdity becomes so great that it takes the place of a 
demonstration. He takes it for granted that matter was 
created and that its creator was not. He assumes that a creator 
existed from eternity, without cause, and created what is called 
matter out of nothing ; or, whereas there was nothing, this 
creator made the something that we call substance. 

Is it possible for the human mind to conceive of an infinite 
personality ? Can it imagine a beginningless being, infinitely 
powerful and intelligent? If such a being existed, then there 
must have been an eternity during which nothing did exist 
except this being ; because, if the Universe was created, there 
must have been a time when it was not, and back of that there 
must have been an eternity during which nothing but an 
infinite personality existed. Is it possible to imagine an infi- 
nite intelligence dwelling for an eternity in infinite nothing? 
How could such a being be intelligent ? What was there to 
be intelligent about? There was but one thing to know, 
namely, that there was nothing except this being. How could 
such a being be powerful? There was nothing to exercise 
force upon. There was nothing in the universe to suggest an 
idea. Relations could not exist — except the relation between 
infinite intelligence and infinite nothing. 

The next great difficulty is the act of creation. My mind is 
so that I cannot conceive of something being created out of 
nothing. Neither can I conceive of anything being created 
without a cause. Let me go one step further. It is just as 
difficult to imagine something being created with, as without, 
a cause. To postulate a cause does not in the least lessen the 
difficulty. In spite of all, this lever remains without a fulcrum. 



8 WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? 

We cannot conceive of the destruction of substance. The 
stone can be crushed to powder, and the powder can be ground 
to such a fineness that the atoms can only be distinguished by 
the most powerful microscope, and we can then imagine these 
atoms being divided and subdivided again and again and 
again ; but it is impossible for us to conceive of the annihilation 
of the least possible imaginable fragment of the least atom of 
which we can think. Consequently the mind can imagine 
neither creation nor destruction. From this point it is very 
easy to reach the generalization that the indestructible could 
not have been created. 

These questions, however, will be answered by each individual 
according to the structure of his mind, according to his ex- 
perience, according to his habits of thought, and according to 
his intelligence or his ignorance, his prejudice or his genius. 

Probably a very large majority of mankind believe in the 
existence of supernatural beings, and a majority of what are 
known as the civilized nations, in an infinite personality. In 
the realm of thought majorities do not determine. Each brain 
is a kingdom, each mind is a sovereign. 

The universality of a belief does not even tend to prove its 
truth. A large majority of mankind have believed in what is 
known as God, and an equally large majority have as implicitly 
believed in what is known as the Devil. These beings have 
been inferred from phenomena. They were produced for the 
most part by ignorance, by fear, and by selfishness. Man in 
all ages has endeavored to account for the mysteries of life and 
death, of substance, offeree, for the ebb and flow of things, for 
earth and star. The savage, dwelling in his cave, subsisting 
on roots and reptiles, or on beasts that could be slain with 
club and stone, surrounded by countless objects of terror, 
standing by rivers, so far as he knew, without source or end, 
by seas with but one shore, the prey of beasts mightier than 



WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? 9 

himself, of diseases strange and fierce, trembling at the voice 
of thunder, blinded by the lightning, feeling the earth shake 
beneath him, seeing the sky lurid with the volcano's glare, — 
fell prostrate and begged for the protection of the Unknown. 

In the long night of savagery, in the midst of pestilence and 
famine, through the long and dreary winters, crouched in dens 
of darkness, the seeds of superstition were sown in the brain of 
man. The savage beheved, and thoroughly believed, that 
everything happened in reference to him ; that he by his actions 
could excite the anger, or by his worship placate the wrath, of 
the Unseen. He resorted to flattery and prayer. To the best 
of his ability he put in stone, or rudely carved in wood, his 
idea of this god. For this idol he built a hut, a hovel, and at 
last a cathedral. Before these images he bowed, and at these 
shrines, whereon he lavished his wealth, he sought protection 
for himself and for the ones he loved. The few took advantage 
of the ignorant many. They pretended to have received mes- 
sages from the Unknown. They stood between the helpless 
multitude and the gods. They were the carriers of flags of 
truce. At the court of heaven they presented the cause of 
man, and upon the labor of the deceived they lived. 

The Christian of to-day wonders at the savage who bowed 
before his idol ; and yet it must be confessed that the god of 
stone answered prayer and protected his worshippers precisely 
as the Christian's God answers prayer and protects his wor- 
shippers to-day. 

My mind is so that it is forced to the conclusion that sub- 
stance is eternal ; that the universe was without beginning and 
will be without end ; that it is the one eternal existence ; that 
relations are transient and evanescent ; that organisms are pro- 
duced and vanish ; that forms change, — but that the substance 
of things is from eternity to eternity. It may be that planets 
are born and die, that constellations will fade from the infinite 



10 WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? 

spaces, that countless suns will be quenched, — but the substance 
will remain. 

The questions of origin and destiny seem to be beyond the 
powers of the human mind. 

Heredity is on the side of superstition. All our ignorance 
pleads for the old. In most men there is a feeling that their 
ancestors were exceedingly good and brave and wise, and that 
in all things pertaining to religion their conclusions should be 
followed. They believe that their fathers and mothers were of 
the best, and that that which satisfied them should satisfy their 
children. With a feeling of reverence they say that the religion 
of their mother is good enough and pure enough and reasonable 
enough for them. In this way the love of parents and the 
reverence for ancestors have unconsciously bribed the reason 
and put out, or rendered exceedingly dim, the eyes of the 
mind. 

There is a kind of longing in the heart of the old to live and 
die where their parents lived and died — a tendency to go back 
to the homes of their youth. Around the old oak of manhood 
grow and cling these vines. Yet it will hardly do to say that 
the religion of my mother is good enough for me, any more 
than to say the geology, or the astronomy, or the philosophy 
of my mother is good enough for me. Every human being is 
entitled to the best he can obtain ; and if there has been the 
slightest improvement on the religion of the mother, the son is 
entitled to that improvement, and he should not deprive himself 
of that advantage by the mistaken idea that he owes it to his 
mother to perpetuate, in a reverential way, her ignorant mis- 
takes. 

If we are to follow the religion of our fathers and mothers, 
our fathers and mothers should have followed the religion of 
theirs. Had this been done, there could have been no im- 
provement in the world of thought. The first religion would 



WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? II 

have been the last, and the child would have died as ignorant 
as the mother. Progress would have been impossible, and on 
the graves of ancestors would have been sacrificed the intelli- 
gence of mankind. 

We know, too, that there has been the religion of the tribe, 
of the community, and of the nation, and that there has been a 
feeling that it was the duty of every member of the tribe or 
community, and of every citizen of the nation, to insist upon 
it that the religion of that tribe, of that community, of that 
nation, was better than that of any other. We know that all 
the prejudices against other religions, and all the egotism of 
nation and tribe, were in favor of the local superstition. Each 
citizen was patriotic enough to denounce the religions of other 
nations and to stand firmly by hi^ own. And there is this 
peculiarity about man : he can see the absurdities of other 
religions while blinded to those of his own. The Christian can 
see clearly enough that Mohammed was an impostor. He is 
sure of it, because the people of Mecca who were acquainted 
with him declared that he was no prophet ; and this declaration 
is received by Christians as a demonstration that Mohammed 
was not inspired. Yet these same Christians admit that the 
people of Jerusalem who were acquainted with Christ rejected 
him ; and this rejection they take as proof positive that Christ 
was the Son of God. 

The average man adopts the religion of his country, or, 
rather, the religion of his country adopts him. He is domin- 
ated by the egotism of race, the arrogance of nation, and the 
prejudice called patriotism. He does not reason — he feels. 
He does not investigate — he believes. To him the religions 
of other nations are absurd and infamous, and their gods mon- 
sters of ignorance and cruelty. In every country this average 
man is taught, first, that there is a supreme being ; second, 
that he has made known his will ; third, that he will reward 



12 WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? 

the true believer ; fourth, that he will punish the unbeliever, 
the scoffer, and the blasphemer ; fifth, that certain ceremonies 
are pleasing to this god ; sixth, that he has established a 
church ; and seventh, that priests are his representatives on 
earth. And the average man has no difficulty in determining 
that the God of his nation is the true God; that the will of 
this true God is contained in the sacred scriptures of his nation ; 
that he is one of the true believers, and that the people of other 
nations — that is, believing other religions — are scoffers ; that 
the only true church is the one to which he belongs ; and that 
the priests of his country are the only ones who have had or 
ever will have the slightest influence with this true God. All 
these absurdities to the average man seem self-evident propo- 
sitions ; and so he holds all other creeds in scorn, and con- 
gratulates himself that he is a favorite of the one true God. 

If the average Christian had been born in Turkey, he would 
have been a Mohammedan ; and if the average Mohammedan 
had been born in New England and educated at Andover, he 
would have regarded the damnation of the heathen as the 
** tidings of great joy." 

Nations have eccentricities, peculiarities, and hallucinations, 
and these find expression in their laws, customs, ceremonies, 
morals, and religions. And these are in great part determined 
by soil, climate, and the countless circumstances that mould 
and dominate the lives and habits of insects, individuals, and 
nations. The average man believes implicitly in the religion 
of his country, because he knows nothing of any other and has 
no desire to know. It fits him because he has been deformed 
to fit it, and he regards this fact of fit as an evidence of its 
inspired truth. 

Has a man the right to examine, to investigate, the religion 
of his own country — the religion of his father and mother? 
Christians admit that the citizens of all countries not Christian 



WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? I3 

have not only this right, but that it is their solemn duty. 
Thousands of missionaries are sent to heathen countries to 
persuade the believers in other religions not only to examine 
their superstitions, but to renounce them, and to adopt those 
of the missionaries. It is the duty of a heathen to disregard 
the religion of his country and to hold in contempt the creed 
of his father and of his mother. If the citizens of heathen 
nations have the right to examine the foundations of their 
religion, it would seem that the citizens of Christian nations 
have the same right. Christians, however, go further than 
this ; they say to the heathen : You must examine your re- 
ligion, and not only so, but you must reject it ; and, unless 
you do reject it, and, in addition to such rejection, adopt ours, 
you will be eternally damned. Then these same Christians 
say to the inhabitants of a Christian country : You must not 
examine ; you must not investigate ; but whether you examine 
or not, you must believe, or you will be eternally damned. 

If there be one true religion, how is it possible to ascertain 
which of all the religions the true one is? There is but one 
way. We must impartially examine the claims of all. The 
right to examine involves the necessity to accept or reject. 
Understand me, not the right to accept or reject, but the 
necessity. From this conclusion there is no possible escape. 
If, then, we have the right to examine, we have the right to 
tell the conclusion reached. Christians have examined other 
religions somewhat, and they have expressed their opinion 
with the utmost freedom — that is to say, they have denounced 
them all as false and fraudulent ; have called their gods idols 
and myths, and their priests impostors. 

The Christian does not deem it worth while to read the 
Koran. Probably not one Christian in a thousand ever saw a 
copy of that book. And yet all Christians are perfectly satis- 
fied that the Koran is the work of an impostor. No Presby- 



14 WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? 

terian thinks it is worth his while to examine the religious 
systems of India ; he knows that the Brahmins are mistaken, 
and that all their miracles are falsehoods. No Methodist cares 
to read the life of Buddha, and no Baptist will waste his time 
studying the ethics of Confucius. Christians of every sort and 
kind take it for granted that there is only one true religion, and 
that all except Christianity are absolutely without foundation. 
The Christian world believes that all the prayers of India are 
unanswered ; that all the sacrifices upon the countless altars of 
Egypt, of Greece, and of Rome were without effect. They 
believe that all these mighty nations worshipped their gods in 
vain ; that their priests were deceivers or deceived ; that their 
ceremonies were wicked or meaningless ; that their temples 
were built by ignorance and fraud, and that no God heard their 
songs of praise, their cries of despair, their words of thankful- 
ness ; that on account of their religion no pestilence was 
stayed ; that the earthquake and volcano, the flood and storm 
went on their ways of death — while the real God looked on 
and laughed at their calamities and mocked at their fears. 

We find now that the prosperity of nations has depended, 
not upon their religion, not upon the goodness or providence 
of some god, but on soil and climate and commerce, upon the 
ingenuity, industry, and courage of the people, upon the de- 
velopment of the mind, on the spread of education, on the 
liberty of thought and action; and that in this mighty pan- 
orama of national life, reason has built and superstition has 
destroyed. 

Being satisfied that all believe precisely as they must, and 
that religions have been naturally produced, I have neither 
praise nor blame for any man. Good men have had bad 
creeds, and bad men have had good ones. Some of the noblest 
of the human race have fought and died for the wrong. The 
brain of man has been the trysting-place of contradictions. 



WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? 1 5 

Passion often masters reason, and *'the state of man, like 
to a little kingdom, suffers then the nature of an insurrec- 
tion." 

In the discussion of theological or religious questions, we 
have almost passed the personal phase, and v/e are now 
weighing arguments instead of exchanging epithets and curses. 
They who really seek for truth must be the best of friends. 
Each knows that his desire can never take the place of facft, and 
that, next to finding truth, the greatest honor must be won in 
honest search. 

We see that many ships are driven in many ways by the 
same wind. So men, reading the same book, write many 
creeds and lay out many roads to heaven. To the best of my 
ability, I have examined the religions of many countries and 
the creeds of many se6ls. They are much alike, and the tes- 
timony by which they are substantiated is of such a chara6ter 
that to those who believe is promised an eternal reward. In 
all the sacred books there are some truths, some rays of light, 
some words of love and hope. The face of savagery is some- 
times softened by a smile^ — the human triumphs, and the heart 
breaks into song. But in these books are also found the 
words of fear and hate, and from their pages crawl serpents 
that coil and hiss in all the paths of men. 

For my part, I prefer the books that inspiration has not 
claimed. Such is the nature of my brain that Shakespeare 
gives me greater joy than all the prophets of the ancient world. 
There are thoughts that satisfy the hunger of the mind. I am 
convinced that Humboldt knew more of geology than the au- 
thor of Genesis ; that Darwin was a greater naturalist than he 
who told the story of the flood ; that Laplace was better ac- 
quainted with the habits of the sun and moon than Joshua 
could have been, and that Haeckel, Huxley, and Tyndal know 
more about the earth and stars, about the history of man, the 



l6 WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? 

philosophy of life — more that is of use, ten thousand times — 
than all the writers of the sacred books. 

I believe in the religion of reason — the gospel of this world ; 
in the development of the mind, in the accumulation of intel- 
lectual wealth, to the end that man may free himself from su- 
perstitious fear, to the end that he may take advantage of the 
forces of nature to feed and clothe the world. 

Let us be honest with ourselves. In the presence of count- 
less mysteries ; standing beneath the boundless heaven sown 
thick with constellations ; knowing that each grain of sand, 
each leaf, each blade of grass, asks of every mind the answer- 
less question ; knowing that the simplest thing defies solution ; 
feeling that w^e deal with the superficial and the relative, and 
that we are forever eluded by the real, the absolute, — let us 
admit the limitations of our minds, and let us have the cour- 
age and the candor to say : We do not know. 



PART II. 

THE Christian religion rests on miracles. There are no 
miracles in the realm of science. The real philosopher 
does not seek to excite wonder, but to make that plain which 
was wonderful. He does not endeavor to astonish, but to 
enlighten. He is perfectly confident that there are no miracles 
in nature. He knows that the mathematical expression of the 
same relations, contents, areas, numbers and proportions must 
forever remain the same. He knows that there are no miracles 
in chemistry ; that the attractions and repulsions, the loves 
and hatreds, of atoms are constant. Under like conditions, he 
is certain that like will always happen ; that the product ever 
has been and forever will be the same ; that the atoms or par- 
ticles unite in definite, unvarying proportions, — so many of 
one kind mix, mingle, and harmonize with just so many of an- 
other, and the surplus will be forever cast out. There are no 
exceptions. Substances are always true to their natures. They 
have no caprices, no prejudices, that can vary or control their 
action. They are *' the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.*' 
In this fixedness, this constancy, this eternal integrity, the 
intelligent man has absolute confidence. It is useless to tell 
him that there was a time when fire would not consume the 
combustible, when water would not flow in obedience to the 
attraction of gravitation, or that there ever was a fragment of 
a moment during which substance had no weight. 

Credulity should be the servant of intelligence. The igno- 

(17) 



1 8 WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? 

rant have not credulity enough to believe the actual, because 
the actual appears to be contrary to the evidence of their 
senses. To them it is plain that the sun rises and sets, and 
they have not credulity enough to believe in the rotary motion 
of the earth — that is to say, they have not intelligence enough 
to comprehend the absurdities involved in their belief, and the 
perfect harmony between the rotation of the earth and all 
known facts. They trust their eyes, not their reason. Igno- 
rance has always been and always will be at the mercy of 
appearance. CreduHty, as a rule, believes everything except 
the truth. The semi-civilized believe in astrology, but who 
could convince them of the vastness of astronomical spaces, 
the speed of light, or the magnitude and number of suns and 
constellations ? If Hermann the magician, and Humboldt the 
philosopher, could have appeared before savages, which would 
have been regarded as a god ? 

When men knew nothing of mechanics, nothing of the corre- 
lation of force, and of its indestructibility, they were believers 
in perpetual motion. So when chemistry was a kind of sleight- 
of-hand, or necromancy, something accomplished by the aid 
of the supernatural, people talked about the transmutation of 
metals, the universal solvent, and the philosopher's stone. 
Perpetual motion would be a mechanical miracle ; and the 
transmutation of metals would be a miracle in chemistry ; and 
if we could make the result of multiplying two by two five, 
that would be a miracle in m.athemalics. No one expects to 
find a circle the diameter of which is just one fourth of the cir- 
cumference. If one could find such a circle, then there would 
be a miracle in geometry. 

In other words, there are no miracles in any science. The 
moment we understand a question or subject, the miraculous 
necessarily disappears. If anything actually happens in the 
chemical world, it will, under like conditions, happen again. 



WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? ^19 

No one need take an account of this result from the mouths of 
others : all can try the experiment for themselves. There is 
no caprice, and no accident. 

It is admitted, at least by the Protestant world, that the age 
of miracles has passed away, and, consequently, miracles can- 
not at present be established by miracles ; they must be sub- 
stantiated by the testimony of witnesses who are said by certain 
writers — or, rather by uncertain writers — to have lived several 
centuries ago ; and this testimony is given to us, not by the 
witnesses themselves, not by persons who say that they talked 
with those witnesses, but by unknown persons who did not 
give the sources of their information. 

The question is : Can miracles be established except by 
miracles ? We know that the writers may have been mistaken. 
It is possible that they may have manufactured these accounts 
themselves. The witnesses may have told what they knew to 
be untrue, or they may have been honestly deceived, or the 
stories may have been true as at first told. Imagination may 
have added greatly to them, so that after several centuries of 
accretion a very simple truth was changed to a miracle. 

We must admit that all probabilities must be against mira- 
cles, for the reason that that which is probable cannot by any 
possibility be a miracle. Neither the probable nor the possible, 
so far as man is concerned, can be miraculous. The proba- 
bility therefore says that the writers and witnesses were either 
mistaken or dishonest. 

We must admit that we have never seen a miracle ourselves, 
and we must admit that, according to our experience, there 
are no miracles. If we have mingled with the world, we are 
compelled to say that we have known a vast number of persons 
— including ourselves — to be mistaken, and many others who 
have failed to tell the exact truth. The probabiHties are on 
the side of our experience, and, consequently, against the 



20 WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? 

miraculous ; and It is a necessity that the free mind moves 
along the path of least resistance. 

The effect of testimony depends on the intelligence and 
honesty of the witness and the intelligence of him who weighs. 
A man living in a community where the supernatural is ex- 
pected, where the miraculous is supposed to be of almost daily 
occurrence, will, as a rule, believe that all wonderful things are 
the result of supernatural agencies. He will expect providen- 
tial interference, and, as a consequence, his mind will pursue 
the path of least resistance, and will account for all phenomena 
by what to him is the easiest method. Such people, with the 
best intentions, honestly bear false witness. They have been 
imposed upon by appearances, and are victims of delusion and 
illusion. 

In an age when reading and writing were substantially un- 
known, and when history itself was but the vaguest hearsay 
handed down from dotage to infancy, nothing was rescued from 
oblivion except the wonderful, the miraculous. The more 
marvelous the story, the greater the interest excited. Narra- 
tors and hearers were alike ignorant and alike honest. At that 
time nothing was known, nothing suspected, of the orderly 
course of nature — of the unbroken and unbreakable chain of 
causes and effects. The world was governed by caprice. 
Everything was at the mercy of a being, or beings, who were 
themselves controlled by the same passions that dominated 
man. Fragments of facts were taken for the whole, and the 
deductions drawn were honest and monstrous. 

It is probably certain that all of the religions of the world 
have been believed, and that all the miracles have found cre- 
dence in countless brains ; otherwise they could not have been 
perpetuated. They were not all born of cunning. Those who 
told were as honest as those who heard. This being so, noth- 
ing has been too absurd for human credence. 



WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? 21 

All religions, so far as I know, claim to have been miracu- 
lously founded, miraculously preserved, and miraculously 
propagated. The priests of all claimed to have messages from 
God, and claimed to have a certain authority, and the miracu- 
lous has always been appealed to for the purpose of substanti- 
ating the message and the authority. 

If men believe in the supernatural, they will account for all 
phenomena by an appeal to supernatural means or power. 
We know that formerly everything was accounted for in this 
way except some few simple things with which man thought 
he was perfectly acquainted. After a time men found that 
under like conditions like would happen, and as to those things 
the supposition of supernatural interference was abandoned ; 
but that interference was still active as to all the unknown 
world. In other words, as the circle of man's knowledge 
grew, supernatural interference withdrew and was active only 
just beyond the horizon of the known. 

Now, there are some believers in universal special providence 
— that is, men who believe in perpetual interference by a super- 
natural power, thfs interference being for the purpose of pun- 
ishing or rewarding, of destroying or preserving, individuals 
and nations. 

Others have abandoned the idea of providence in ordinary 
matters, but still believe that God interferes on great occasions 
and at critical moments, especially in the affairs of nations, and 
that his presence is manifest in great disasters. This is the 
compromise position. These people believe that an infinite 
being made the universe and impressed upon it what they are 
pleased to call *^laws,'* and then left it to run in accordance 
with those laws and forces ; that as a rule it works well, and 
that the divine maker interferes only in cases of accident, or at 
moments when the machine fails to accomplish the original 
design. 



22 WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? 

There are others who take the ground that all is natural ; 
that there never has been, never will be, never can be any 
interference from without, for the reason that nature embraces 
all, and that there can be no without or beyond. 

The first class are Theists pure and simple ; the second are 
Theists as to the unknown, Naturalists as to the known ; and 
the third are Naturalists without a touch or taint of superstition. 

What can the evidence of the first class be worth ? This 
question is answered by reading the history of those nations 
that believed thoroughly and implicitly in the supernatural. 
There is no conceivable absurdity that was not established by 
their testimony. Every law or every fact in nature was vio- 
lated. Children were born without parents ; men lived for 
thousands of years ; others subsisted without food, without 
sleep ; thousands and thousands were possessed with evil 
spirits, controlled by ghosts and ghouls ; thousands confessed 
themselves guilty of impossible offences, and in courts, with 
the most solemn forms, impossibilities were substantiated by 
the oaths, affirmations, and confessions of men, women, and 
children. 

These delusions were not confined to ascetics and peasants, 
but they took possession of nobles and kings ; of people who 
were at that time called intelligent ; of the then educated. No 
one denied these wonders, for the reason that denial was a 
crime punishable generally with death. Societies, nations, 
became insane — victims of ignorance, of dreams, and, above 
all, of fears. Under these conditions human testimony is not 
and cannot be of the slightest value. We now know that 
nearly all of the history of the world is false, and we know this 
because we have arrived at that phase or point of intellectual 
development where and when we know that effects must have 
causes, that everything is naturally produced, and that, conse- 
quently, no nation could ever have been great, powerful, and 



WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? 2^ 

rich unless it had the soil, the people, the intelligence, and the 
commerce. Weighed in these scales, nearly all histories are 
found to be fictions. 

The same is true of religions. Every intelligent American 
is satisfied that the religions of India, of Egypt, of Greece and 
Rome, of the Aztecs, were and are false, and that all the mira- 
cles on which they rest are mistakes. Our religion alone is 
excepted. Every intelligent Hindoo discards all religions and 
all miracles except his own. The question is : When will peo- 
ple see the defects in their own theology as clearly as they 
perceive the same defects in every other ? 

All the so-called false religions were substantiated by mira- 
cles, by signs and wonders, by prophets and martyrs, precisely 
as our own. Our witnesses are no better than theirs, and our 
success is no greater. If their miracles were false, ours cannot 
be true. Nature w^as the same in India and in Palestine. 

One of the corner-stones of Christianity is the miracle of 
inspiration, and this same miracle lies at the foundation of all 
religions. How can the fact of inspiration* be established? 
How could even the inspired man know that he was inspired ? 
If he was influenced to write, and did write, and did express 
thoughts and facts that to him were absolutely new, on subjects 
about which he had previously known nothing, how could he 
know that he had been influenced by an infinite being? And 
if he could know, how could he convince others ? 

What is meant by inspiration ? Did the one inspired set 
down only the thoughts of a supernatural being? Was he 
simply an instrument, or did his personality color the message 
received and given ? Did he mix his ignorance with the divine 
information, his prejudices and hatreds with the love and jus- 
tice of the Deity ? If God told him not to eat the flesh of any 
beast that dieth of itself, did the same infinite being also tell 
him to sell this meat to the stranger within his gates ? 



24 WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? 

A man says that he is inspired — that God appeared to him 
in a dream, and told him certain things. Now, the things said 
to have been communicated may have been good and wise ; 
but will the fact that the communication is good or wise estab- 
lish the inspiration ? If, on the other hand, the communication 
is absurd or wicked, will that conclusively show that the man 
was not inspired ? Must we judge from the communication ? 
In other words, is our reason to be the final standard ? 

How could the inspired man know that the communication 
was received from God ? If God in reality should appear to a 
human being, how could this human being know who had 
appeared? By what standard would he judge? Upon this 
question man has no experience ; he is not familiar enough 
with the supernatural to know gods even if they exist. Al- 
though thousands have pretended to receive messages, there 
has been no message in which there was, or is, anything above 
the invention of man. There are just as wonderful things in 
the uninspired as in the inspired books, and the prophecies of 
the heathen have^'been fulfilled equally with those of the Judean 
prophets. If, then, even the inspired man cannot certainly 
know that he is inspired, how is it possible for him to demon- 
strate his inspiration to others? The last solution of this ques- 
tion is that inspiration is a miracle about which only the inspired 
can have the least knowledge, or the least evidence, and this 
knowledge and this evidence not of a character to absolutely 
convince even the inspired. 

There is certainly nothing in the Old or the New Te^stament 
that could not have been written by uninspired human beings. 
To me there is nothing of any particular value in the Penta- 
teuch. I do not know of a solitary scientific truth contained in 
the five books commonly attributed to Moses. There is not, 
as far as I know, a line in the book of Genesis calculated to 
make a human being better. The laws contained in Exodus, 



WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? 25 

Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are for the most part 
puerile and cruel. Surely there is nothing in any of these 
books that could not have been produced by uninspired men. 
Certainly there is nothing calculated to excite intellectual ad- 
miration in the book o/ Judges or in the wars of Joshua ; and 
the same may be said of Samuel, Chronicles, and Kings. The 
history is extremely childish, full of repetitions of useless de- 
tails, without the slightest philosophy, without a generalization 
born of a wide survey. Nothing is known of other nations ; 
nothing imparted of the slightest value ; nothing about edu- 
cation, discovery, or invention. And these idle and stupid 
annals are interspersed with myth and miracle, with flattery 
for kings who supported priests, and with curses and denun- 
ciations for those who would not hearken to the voice of the 
prophets. If all the historic books of the Bible were blotted 
from the memory of mankind, nothing of value would be lost. 

Is it possible that the writer or writers of First and Second 
Kings were inspired, and that Gibbon wrote ** The Decline and 
Fall of the Roman Empire*' without supernatural assistance? 
Is it possible that the author of Judges was simply the instru- 
ment of an infinite God, while John W. Draper wrote *'The 
Intellectual Development of Europe '' without one ray of light 
from the other world? Can we believe that the author of 
Genesis had to be inspired, while Darwin experimented, ascer- 
tained, and reached conclusions for himself. 

Ought not the work of a God to be vastly superior to that 
of a man ? And if the writers of the Bible were in reality in- 
spired, ought not that book to be the greatest of books? For 
instance, if it were contended that certain statues had been 
chiselled by inspired men, such statues should be superior to 
any that uninspired man has made. As long as it is admitted 
that the Venus de Milo is the work of man, no one will believe 
in inspired sculptors — at least until a superior statue has been 



26 WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? 

found. So in the world of painting. We admit that Corot 
was uninspired. Nobody claims that Angelo had supernatural 
assistance. Now, if some one should claim that a certain 
painter was simply the instrumentality of God, certainly the 
pidlures produced by that painter should be superior to all 
others. 

I do not see how it is possible for an intelligent human being 
to conclude that the Song of Solomon is the work of God, and 
that the tragedy of * * Lear ' ' was the work of an uninspired 
man. We are all liable to be mistaken, but the Illiad seems 
to me a greater work than the Book of Esther, and I prefer it to 
the writings of Haggai and Hosea. ^schylus is superior to 
Jeremiah, and Shakespeare rises immeasurably above all the 
sacred books of the world. 

It does not seem possible that any human being ever tried 
to establish a truth — anything that really happened — by what 
is called a miracle. It is easy to understand how that which 
was common became wonderful by accretion, — by things added, 
and by things forgotten, — and it is easy to conceive how that 
which was wonderful became by accretion what was called su- 
pernatural. But it does not seem possible that any intelligent, 
honest man ever endeavored to prove anything by a miracle. 

As a matter of fa6l, miracles could only satisfy people who 
demanded no evidence ; else how could they have believed the 
miracle ? It also appears to be certain that, even if miracles 
had been performed, it would be impossible to establish that 
fa6l by human testimony. In other words, miracles can only 
be established by miracles, and in no event could miracles be 
evidence except to those who were a6lual1y present ; and in 
order for miracles to be of any value, they would have to be 
perpetual. It must also be remembered that a miracle actually 
performed could by no possibility shed any light on any moral 
truth, or add to any human obligation. 



WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? 2^ 

If any man has ever been inspired, this is a secret miracle, 
known to no person, and suspefted only by the man claiming 
to be inspired. It would not be in the power of the inspired 
to give satisfadlory evidence of that fact to anybody else. 

The testimony of man is insufficient to establish the super- 
natural. Neither the evidence of one man nor of twelve can 
stand when contradi6led by the experience of the intelligent 
world. If a book sought to be proved by miracles is true, 
then it makes no difference whether it was inspired or not ; 
and if it is not true, inspiration cannot add to its value. 

The truth is that the church has always — unconsciously, per- 
haps — offered rewards for falsehood. It was founded upon the 
supernatural, the miraculous, and it welcomed all statements 
calculated to support the foundation. It rewarded the traveller 
who found evidences of the miraculous, who had seen the 
pillar of salt into which the wife of Lot had been changed, and 
the tracks of Pharaoh's chariots on the sands of the Red Sea. 
It heaped honors on the historian w^ho filled his pages wdth the 
absurd and impossible. It had geologists and astronomers of 
its own who constructed the earth and the constellations in 
accordance with the Bible. With sword and flame it destroyed 
the brave and thoughtful men who told the truth. It was the 
enemy of investigation and of reason. Faith and fiction w^ere 
in partnership. 

To-day the intelligence of the world denies the miraculous. 
Ignorance is the soil of the supernatural. The foundation of 
Christianity has crumbled, has disappeared, and the entire fab- 
ric must falK The natural is true. The miraculous is false. 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 



IN the February number of the Nineteenth Century, 1889,1s 
an article by Professor Huxley, entitled ' * Agnosticism. ' ' It 
seems that a church congress was held at Manchester in Octo- 
ber, 1888, and that the Principal of King's College brought 
the topic of Agnosticism before the assembly and made the 
following statement : 

** But if this be so, for a man to urge as an escape from this article 
of belief that he has no means of a scientific knowledge of an unseen 
world, or of the future, is irrelevant. His difference from Christians lies, 
not in the fact that he has no knowledge of these things, but that he 
does not believe the authority on which they are stated. He may 
prefer to call himself an Agnostic, but his real name is an older one — 
he is an infidel ; that is to say, an unbeliever. The word infidel, per- 
haps, carries an unpleasant significance. Perhaps it is right that it 
should. It is, and it ought to be, an unpleasant thing for a man to 
have to say plainly that he does not believe in Jesus Christ." 

Let us examine this statement, putting it in language that is 
easily understood ; and for that purpose we will divide it into 
several paragraphs. 

First, — ' ' For a man to urge that he has no means of a scien- 
tific knowledge of the unseen world, or of the future, is 
irrelevant.*' 

Is there any other knowledge than a scientific knowledge? 

Are there several kinds of knowing? Is there such a thing as 

scientific ignorance? If a man says, '* I know nothing of the 

unseen world because I have no knowledge upon that subject,'* 

(28) 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 29 

IS the fact that he has no knowledge absolutely irrelevant? 
Will the Principal of King*s College say that having no knowl- 
edge is the reason he knows ? When asked to give your 
opinion upon any subject, can it be said that your ignorance 
of that subject is irrelevant? If this be true, then your knowl- 
edge of the subject is also irrelevant? 

Is it possible to put in ordinary English a more perfect 
absurdity ? How can a man obtain any knowledge of the un- 
seen world? He certainly cannot obtain it through the 
medium of the senses. It is not a world that he can visit. He 
cannot stand upon its shores, nor can he view them from the 
ocean of imagination. The Principal of King*s College, 
however, insists that these impossibilities are irrelevant. 

No person has com.e back from the unseen world. No 
authentic message has been delivered. Through all the centu- 
ries, not one whisper has broken the silence that lies beyond 
the grave. Countless millions have sought for some evidence, 
have listened in vain for some word. 

It is most cheerfully admitted that all this does not prove 
the non-existence of another world — all this does not demon- 
strate that death ends all. But it is the justification of the 
Agnostic, who candidly says, '' I do not know." 

Second, — The Principal of King's College states that the 
diflference between an Agnostic and a Christian * ^ lies, not in 
the fact that he has no knowledge of these things, but that he 
does not believe the authority on which they are stated." 

Is this a difference in knowledge, or a difference in belief — 
that is to say, a difference in credulity ? 

The Christian believes the Mosaic account. He reverently 
hears and admits the truth of all that he finds within the scrip- 
tures. Is this knowledge ? How is it possible to know whether 
the reputed authors of the books of the Old Testament were 
the real ones ? The witnesses are dead. The lips that could 



30 PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 

testify are dust. Between these shores roll the waves of many 
centuries. Who knows whether such a man as Moses existed 
or not ? Who knows the author of Kings and Chronicles ? 
By what testimony can we substantiate the authenticity of the 
prophets, or of the prophecies, or of the fulfillments ? Is there 
any difference between the knowledge of the Christian and of 
the Agnostic? Does the Principal of King's College know 
any more as to the truth of the Old Testament than the man 
who modestly calls for evidence? Has not a mistake been 
made ? Is not the difference one of belief instead of knowl- 
edge ? And is not this difference founded on the difference in 
credulity? Would not an infinitely wise and good being — 
where belief is a condition to salvation — supply the evidence ? 
Certainly the Creator of man — if such exist — knows the exact 
nature of the human mind — knows the evidence necessary to 
convince ; and, consequently, such a being would act in ac- 
cordance with such conditions. 

There is a relation between evidence and belief. The mind 
is so constituted that certain things, being in accordance with 
its nature, are regarded as reasonable, as probable. 

There is also this fact that must not be overlooked : that is, 
that just in the proportion that the brain is developed it re- 
quires more evidence, and becomes less and less credulous. 
Ignorance and credulity go hand in hand. Intelligence under- 
stands something of the law of average, has an idea of proba- 
bility. It is not swayed by prejudice, neither is it driven to 
extremes by suspicion. It takes into consideration personal 
motives. It examines the character of the witnesses, makes 
allowance for the ignorance of the time, — for enthusiasm, for 
fear, — and comes to its conclusion without fear and without 
passion. 

What knowledge has the Christian of another world? The 
senses of the Christian are the same as those of the Agnostic 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 31 

He hears, sees, and feels substantially the same. His vision 
is limited. He sees no other shore and hears nothing from 
another world. 

Knowledge is something that can be imparted. It has a 
foundation in fact. It comes within the domain of the senses. 
It can be told, described, analyzed, and, in addition to all this, 
it can be classified. Whenever a fact becomes the property of 
one mind, it can become the property of the intellectual world. 
There are words in which the knowledge can be conveyed. 

The Christian is not a supernatural person, filled with super- 
natural truths. He is a natural person, and all that he knows 
of value can be naturally imparted. It is within his power to 
give all that he has to the Agnostic. 

The Principal of King's College is mistaken when he says 
that the difference between the Agnostic and the Christian does 
not lie in the fact that the Agnostic has no knowledge, *' but 
that he does not believe the authority on which these things 
are stated. ' ' 

The real difference is this : the Christian says that he has 
knowledge ; the Agnostic admits that he has none ; and yet 
the Christian accuses the Agnostic of arrogance, and asks him 
how he has the impudence to admit the limitations of his mind. 
To the Agnostic every fact is a torch, and by this light, and 
this light only, he walks. 

It is also true that the Agnostic does not believe the authority 
relied on by the Christian. What is the authority of the Chris- 
tian ? Thousands of years ago it is supposed that certain men, 
or, rather, uncertain men, wrote certain things. It is alleged 
by the Christian that these men were divinely inspired, and 
that the words of these men are to be taken as absolutely true, 
no matter whether or not they are verified by modern discovery 
and demonstration. 

How can we know that any human being was divinely in- 



32 PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 

spired ? There has been no personal revelation to ns to the 
effect that certain people were inspired — it is only claimed that 
the revelation was to them. For this we have only their word, 
and about that there is this difficulty : we know nothing of 
them, and, consequently, cannot, if we desire, rely upon their 
character for truth. This evidence is not simply hearsay — it 
is far weaker than that. We have only been told that they 
said these things ; we do not know whether the persons claim- 
ing to be inspired wrote these things or not ; neither are we 
certain that such persons ever existed. We know now that 
the greatest men with whom we are acquainted are often mis- 
taken about the simplest matters. We also know that men 
saying something like the same things, in other countries and 
in ancient days, must have been impostors. The Christian 
has no confidence in the words of Mohammed ; the Moham- 
medan cares nothing about the declarations of Buddha ; and 
the Agnostic gives to the words of the Christian the value only 
of the truth that is in them. He knows that these sayings get 
neither truth nor worth from the person who uttered them. 
He knows that the sayings themselves get their entire value 
from the truth they express. So that the real difference be- 
tween the Christian and the Agnostic does not lie in their 
knowledge, — for neither of them has any knowledge on this 
subject, — but the difference does lie in credulity, and in noth- 
ing else. The Agnostic does not rely on the authority of 
Moses and the prophets. He finds that they were mistaken 
in most matters capable of demonstration. He finds that their 
mistakes multiply in the proportion that human knowledge 
increases. He is satisfied that the religion of the ancient Jews 
is, in most things, as ignorant and cruel as other religions of 
the ancient world. He concludes that the efforts, in all ages, 
to answer the questions of origin and destiny, and to account 
for the phenomena of life, have all been substantial failures. 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 33 

In the presence of demonstration there is no opportunity for 
the exercise of faith. Truth does not appeal to credulity — it 
appeals to evidence, to established facts, to the constitution of 
the mind. It endeavors to harmonize the new fact with all 
that we know, and to bring it within the circumference of 
human experience. 

The church has never cultivated investigation. It has never 
said : Let him who has a mind to think, think ; but its cry 
from the first until now has been : Let him who has ears to 
hear, hear. 

The pulpit does not appeal to the reason of the pew ; it 
speaks by authority and it commands the pew to believe, and 
it not only commands, but it threatens. 

The Agnostic knows that the testimony of man is not suffi- 
cient to establish what is known as the miraculous. We would 
not believe to-day the testimony of millions to the effect that 
the dead had been raised. The church itself would be the 
first to attack such testimony. If we cannot believe those 
whom we know, why should we believe witnesses who have 
been dead thousands of years, and about whom we know 
nothing ? 

Third, — The Principal of King's College, growing some- 
what severe, declares that '' he may prefer to call himself an 
Agnostic, but his real name is an older one — he is an infidel ; 
that is to say, an unbeliever.'' 

This is spoken in a kind of holy scorn. According to this 
gentleman, an unbeliever is, to a certain extent, a disreputable 
person. 

In this sense, what is an unbeliever ? He is one whose mind 
is so constituted that what the Christian calls evidence is not 
satisfactory to him. Is a person accountable for the consti- 
tution of his mind, for the formation of his brain ? I3 any 
human being responsible for the weight that evidence has upon 



34 PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 

him ? Can he believe without evidence ? Is the weight of 
evidence a question of choice? Is there such a thing as 
honestly weighing testimony ? Is the result of such weighing 
necessary? Does it involve moral responsibility? If the 
Mosaic account does not convince a man that it is true, is he a 
wretch because he is candid enough to tell the truth ? Can he 
preserve his manhood only by making a false statement ? 

The Mohammedan would call the Principal of King's Col- 
lege an unbeHever, — so would the tribes of Central Africa, — 
and he would return the compliment, and all would be equally 
justified. Has the Principal of King's College any knowledge 
that he keeps from the rest of the world ? Has he the confi- 
dence of the Infinite ? Is there anything praiseworthy in be- 
lieving where the evidence is sufificient, or is one to be praised 
for believing only where the evidence is insufficient ? Is a man 
to be blamed for not agreeing with his fellow-citizen ? Were 
the unbelievers in the pagan world better or worse than their 
neighbors? It is probably true that some of the greatest 
Greeks believed in the gods of that nation, and it is equally 
true that some of the greatest denied their existence. If cre- 
dulity is a virtue now, it must have been in the days of Athens. 
If to believe without evidence entitles one to eternal reward in 
this century, certainly the same must have been true in the 
days of the Pharaohs. 

An infidel is one who does not believe in the prevailing relig- 
ion. We now admit that the infidels of Greece and Rome 
were right. The gods that they refused to believe in are dead. 
Their thrones are empty, and long ago the sceptres dropped 
from their nerveless hands. To-day the world honors the 
men who denied and derided these gods. 

Fourth, — The Principal of King's College ventures to sug- 
gest that ** the word infidel, perhaps, carries an unpleasant sig- 
nificance ; perhaps it is right that it should." 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 35 

A few years ago the word infidel did carry ** an unpleasant 
significance. ' ' A few years ago its significance was so unpleasant 
that the man to whom the word was applied found himself in 
prison or at the stake. In particularly kind communities he 
was put in the stocks, pelted with offal, derided by hypocrites, 
scorned by ignorance, jeered by cowardice, and all the priests 
passed by on the other side. 

There was a time when Episcopalians were regarded as infi- 
dels ; when a true Catholic looked upon a follower of Henry 
VIII. as an infidel, as an unbeliever ; when a true CathoHc 
held in detestation the man who preferred a murderer and 
adulterer — a man who swapped religions for the sake of ex- 
changing wives — to the Pope, the head of the universal church. 

It is easy enough to conceive of an honest man denying the 
claims of a church based on the caprice of an EngUsh king. 
The word infidel * * carries an unpleasant significance ' * only 
where the Christians are exceedingly ignorant, intolerant, big- 
oted, cruel, and unmannerly. . 

The real gentleman gives to others the rights that he clainis^ 
for himself. The civilized man rises far above the bigotry of 
one who has been ** born again." Good breeding is far gender 
than '' universal love." 

It is natural for the church to hate an unbeliever — natural 
for the pulpit to despise one who refuses to subscribe, who re- 
fuses to give. It is a question of revenue instead of religion. 
The Episcopal Church has the instinct of self-preservation. 
It uses its power, its influence, to compel contribution. It 
forgives the giver. 

Fifth, — The Principal of King's College insists that '* it is, 
and it ought to be, an unpleasant thing for a man to have to 
say plainly that he does not believe in Jesus Christ. " 

Should it be an unpleasant thing for a man to say plainly 
what he. believes ? Can this be unpleasant except in an unciv- 



36 PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 

ilized community — a community in which an uncivilized church 
has authority ? 

Why should not a man be as free to say that he does not 
believe as to say that he does believe ? Perhaps the real ques- 
tion is whether all men have an equal right to express their 
opinions. Is it the duty of the minority to keep silent ? Are 
majorities always right? If the minority had never spoken, 
what to-day would have been the condition of this world ? 
Are the majority the pioneers of progress, or does the pioneer, 
as a rule, walk alone ? Is it his duty to close his lips ? Must 
the inventor allow his inventions to die in the brain ? Must 
the discoverer of new truths make of his mind a tomb ? Is 
man under any obligation to his fellows ? Was the Episcopal 
religion always in the majority? Was it at any time in the 
history of the world an unpleasant thing to be called a Pro- 
testant ? Did the word Protestant * ' carry an unpleasant sig- 
nificance?" Was it ** perhaps right that it should?'* Was 
Luther a misfortune to the human race ? 

If a community is thoroughly civilized, why should it be an 
unpleasant thing for a man to express his belief in respe6lful 
language.? If the argument is against him, it might be un- 
pleasant ; but why should simple numbers be the foundation 
of unpleasantness? If the majority have the fa6ls, — if they 
have the argument, — why should they fear the mistakes of the 
minority ? Does any theologian hate the man he can answer ? 

It is claimed by the Episcopal Church that Christ was in fa6l 
God ; and it is further claimed that the New Testament is an 
inspired account of what that being and his disciples did and 
said. Is there any obligation resting on any human being to 
believe this account ? Is it within the power of man to deter- 
mine the influence that testimony shall have upon his mind ? 

If one denies the existence of devils, does he, for that reason, 
cease to believe in Jesus Christ ? Is it not possible to imagine 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 37 

that a great and tender soul living in Palestine nearly twenty 
centuries ago was misunderstood ? Is it not within the realm 
of the possible that his words have been inaccurately reported? 
Is it not within the range of the probable that legend and 
rumor and ignorance and zeal have deformed his life and be- 
littled his charafler ? 

If the man Christ lived and taught and suffered, if he was, in 
reality, great and noble, who is his friend— the one who attri- 
butes to him feats of jugglery, or he who maintains that these 
stories were invented by zealous ignorance and believed by 
enthusiastic creduHty ? 

If he claimed to have wrought miracles, he must have been 
either dishonest or insane ; consequently, he who denies mir- 
acles does what little he can to rescue the reputation of a great 
and splendid man. 

The Agnostic accepts the good he did, the truth he said, 
and rejeds only that which, according to his judgment, is 
inconsistent with truth and goodness. 

The Principal of King's College evidendy believes in the 
necessity of belief. He puts convidion or creed or credulity 
in place of charader. According to his idea, it is impossible 
to win the approbation of God by intelligent investigation and 
by the expression of honest conclusions. He imagines that 
the Infinite is delighted with credulity, with belief without evi- 
dence, faith without question. 

Man has but litde reason, at best ; but this Httle should be 
used. No matter how small the taper is, how feeble the ray 
of light it casts, it is better than darkness, and no man should 
be rewarded for extinguishing the light he has. 

We know now, if we know anything, that man in this, the 
nineteenth, century, is better Capable of judging as to the 
happening of any event, than he ever was before. We know 
that the standard is higher to-day — we know that the intel- 



38 PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 

Ie6lual light is greater — we know that the human mind is better 
equipped to deal with all questions of human interest, than at 
any other time within the known history of the human race. 

It will not do to say that ** our lord and his apostles must at 
least be regarded as honest men/* Let this be admitted, and 
what does it prove? Honesty is not enough. Intelligence 
and honesty must go hand in hand. We may admit now 
that ** our Lord and his apostles '* were perfe6lly honest men ; 
yet it does not follow that we have a truthful account of what 
they said and of what they did. It is not pretended that '* our 
Lord'' wrote anything, and it is not known that one of the 
apostles ever wrote a word. Consequently, the most that we 
can say is that somebody has written something about * * our 
Lord and his apostles.'* Whether that somebody knew or 
did not know is unknown to us. As to whether what is writ- 
ten is true or false, we must judge by that which is written. 

First of all, is it probable ? is it within the experience of 
mankind? We should judge of the Gospels as we judge of 
other histories, of other biographies. We know that many 
biographies written by perfectly honest men are not corre6l. 
We know, if we know anything, that honest men can be mis- 
taken, and it is not necessary to believe everything that a man 
writes because we believe he was honest. Dishonest men 
may write the truth. 

At last the standard or criterion is for each man to judge 
according to what he believes to be human experience. We 
are satisfied that nothing more wonderful has happened than 
is now happening. We believe that the present is as wonder- 
ful as the past, and just as miraculous as the future. If we are 
to believe in the truth of the Old Testament, the word evidence 
loses its meaning; there ceases to be any standard of proba- 
bility, and the mind simply accepts or denies without reason. 

•We are told that certain miracles were performed for the 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 39 

purpose of attesting the mission and character of Christ. How 
can these miracles be verified ? The miracles of the middle 
ages rest upon substantially the same evidence. The same 
may be said of the wonders of all countries and of all ages. 
How is it a virtue to deny the miracles of Mohammed and to 
believe those attributed to Christ ? 

You may say of St. Augustine that what he said was true or 
false. We know that much of it was false ; and yet we are not 
justified in saying that he was dishonest. Thousands of errors 
have been propagated by honest men. As a rule, mistakes 
get their wings from honest people. The testimony of a wit- 
ness to the happening of the impossible gets no weight from 
the honesty of the witness. The faft that falsehoods are in the 
New Testament does not tend to prove that the writers were 
knowingly untruthful. No man can be honest enough to sub- 
stantiate, to the satisfaction of -reasonable men, the happening 
of a miracle. 

For this reason it makes not the slightest difference whether 
the writers of the New Testament were honest or not. Their 
character is not involved. Whenever a man rises above his 
contemporaries, whenever he excites the wonder of his fellows, 
his biographers always endeavor to bridge over the chasm be- 
tween the people and this man, and for that purpose attribute to 
him the qualities which in the eyes of the multitude are desirable. 

Miracles are demanded by savages, and, consequently, the 
savage biographer attributes miracles to his hero. What 
would we think now of a man who, in writing the life of 
Charles Darwin, should attribute to him supernatural powers? 
What would we say of an admirer of Humboldt who should 
claim that the great German could cast out devils ? We would 
feel that Darwin and Humboldt had been belittled ; that the 
biographies were written for children and by men who had not 
outgrown the nursery. 



40 PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 

If the reputation of * ' our Lord " is to be preserved — if he 
is to stand with the great and splendid of the earth — if he is to 
continue a constellation in the intelle6lual heavens, all claim to 
the miraculous, to the supernatural, must be abandoned. 

No one can over-estimate the evils that have been endured by 
the human race by reason of a departure from the standard of 
the natural. The world has been governed by jugglery, by 
sleight of hand. Miracles, wonders, tricks have been re- 
garded as of far greater importance than the steady, the sub- 
lime and unbroken march of cause and effeft. The improbable 
has been established by the impossible. Falsehood has fur- 
nished the foundation for foith. 

Is the human body at present the residence of evil spirits, or 
have these imps of darkness perished from the world ? Where 
are they ? If the New Testament establishes anything, it is 
the existence of innumerable devils, and that these satanic be- 
ings absolutely took possession of the human mind. Is this 
true ? Can anything be more absurd ? Does any intelle6lual 
man who has examined the question believe that depraved 
demons live in the bodies of men ? Do they occupy space ? 
Do they live upon some kind of food ? Of what shape are 
they ? Could they be classified by a naturalist ? Do they 
run, or float, or fly? If to deny the existence of these sup- 
posed beings is to be an infidel, how can the word infidel 
* ' carry an unpleasant significance ? ' ' 

Of course it is the business of the principals of most colleges, 
as well as of bishops, cardinals, popes, priests, and clergymen 
to insist upon the existence of evil spirits. All these gentle- 
men are employed to countera6l the influence of these sup- 
posed demons. Why should they take the bread out of their 
own mouths? Is it to be expelled that they will unfrock 
themselves ? 

The church, like any other corporation, has the instinct of 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 4I 

self-preservation. It will defend itself; it will fight as long as it 
has the power to change a hand into a fist. 

The Agnostic takes the ground that human experience is the 
basis of morality. Consequently, it is of no importance who 
wrote the gospels, or who vouched or vouches for the genu- 
ineness of the miracles. In his scheme of life these things are 
utterly unimportant. He is satisfied that ** the miraculous '' is 
the impossible. Ke knows that the witnesses were wholly in- 
capable of examining the questions involved, that credulity had 
possession of their minds, that ''the miraculous'* was ex- 
pefted, that it was their daily food. 

All this is very clearly and delightfully stated by Professor 
Huxley, and it hardly seems possible that any intelligent man 
can read what he says without feeling that the foundation of 
all superstition has been weakened. The article is as remark- 
able for its candor as for its clearness. Nothing is avoided — 
everything is met. No excuses are given. He has left all 
apologies for the other side. When you have finished what 
Professor Huxley has written, you feel that your mind has been 
in actual contadl with the mind of another, that nothing has 
been concealed ; and not only so, but you feel that this mind 
is not only willing, but anxious, to know the actual truth. 

To me, the highest uses of philosophy are, first, to free the 
mind of fear, and, second, to avert all the evil that can be 
averted, through intelligence — that is to say, through a knowl- 
edge of the conditions of well-being. 

We are satisfied that the absolute is beyond our vision, be- 
neath our touch, above our reach. We are now convinced 
that we can deal only wuth phenomena, with relations, with 
appearances, with things that impress the senses, that can be 
reached by reason, by the exercise of our faculties. We are 
satisfied that the reasonable road is *'the straight road, " the 
only ''sacred way.*' 



42 PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM, 

Of course there is faith In the world — faith in this world — 
and always will be, unless superstition succeeds in every land. 
But the faith of the wise man is based upon fa6ls. His faith is 
a reasonable conclusion drawn from the known. He has 
faith in the progress of the race, in the triumph of intelligence, 
in the coming sovereignt}^ of science. He has faith in the de- 
velopment of the brain, in the gradual enlightenment of the 
mind. And so he works for the accomplishment of great ends, 
having faith in the final victory of the race. 

He has honesty enough to say that he does not know. He 
perceives and admits that the mind has limitations. He 
doubts the so-called wisdom of the past. He looks for evi- 
dence, and he endeavors to keep his mind free from prejudice. 
He beheves in the manly virtues, in the judicial spirit, and in 
his obligation to tell his honest thoughts. 

It is uselesss to talk about a destruction of consolations. 
That which is suspe6led to be untrue loses its power to console. 
A man should be brave enough to bear the truth. 

Professor Huxley has stated with great clearness the attitude 
of the Agnostic. It seems that he is somewhat severe on the 
Positive Philosophy, While it is hard to see the propriety 
of worshipping Humanity as a being, it is easy to understand 
the splendid dream of Auguste Comte. Is the human race 
worthy to be worshipped by itself— -that is to say, should the 
individual worship himself? Certainly the religion of human- 
ity is better than the religion of the inhuman. The Positive 
Philosophy is better far than Catholicism. It does not fill the 
heavens with monsters, nor the future with pain. 

It may be said that Luther and Comte endeavored to re- 
form the Catholic Church. Both were mistaken, because the 
only reformation of which that church is capable is destruction. 
It is a mass of superstition. 

The mission of Positivism is, in the language of its founder, 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 43 

"to generalize science and to systematize sociality." It seems 
to me that Comte stated with great force and with absolute 
truth the three phases of intelleftual evolution or progress. 

First, — '' In the supernatural phase the mind seeks causes — 
aspires to know the essence of things, and the How and Why 
of their operation. In this phase, all fafts are regarded as the 
produdions of supernatural agents, and unusual phenomena 
are interpreted as the signs of the pleasure or displeasure of 
some god.'* 

Here at this point is the orthodox world of to-day. The 
church still imagines that phenomena should be interpreted as 
the signs of the pleasure or displeasure of God. Nearly every 
history is deformed with this childish and barbaric view. 

Second. — The next phase or modification, according to 
Gomte, is the metaphysical.' **The supernatural agents are 
dispensed with, and in their places we find abstradl forces or 
entities supposed to inhere in substances and capable of engen- 
dering phenomena.'* 

In this phase people talk about laws and principles as 
though laws and principles were forces capable of producing 
phenomena. 

Third. — *' The last stage is the Positive. The mind, con- 
vinced of the futility of all enquiry into causes and essences, 
restri6ls itself to the observation and classification of phenom- 
ena, and to the discovery of the invariable relations of succes- 
sion and similitude — in a word, to the discovery of the relations 
of phenomena.*' 

Why is not the Positive stage the point reached by the 
Agnostic? He has ceased to inquire into the origin of things. 
He has perceived the limitations of the mind. He is thor- 
oughly convinced of the uselessness, and futility, and absurdity 

theological methods, and restri6ls himself to the examination 
of phenomena, to their relations, to their effedls, and endeav- 



44 PROFESSOR HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. 

ors to find in the complexity of things the true conditions of 
human happiness. 

Although I am not a believer in the philosophy of Auguste 
Comte, I cannot shut my eyes to the value of his thought ; 
neither is it possible for me not to applaud his candor, his in- 
telligence, and the courage it required even to attempt to lay 
the foundation of the Positive Philosophy. 

Professor Huxley and Frederic Harrison are splendid soldiers 
in the army of Progress. They have attacked with signal suc- 
cess the sacred and solemn stupidities of superstition. Both 
have appealed to that which is highest and noblest in man. 
Both have been the destroyers of prejudice. Both have shed 
light, and both have won great viftories on the fields of intel- 
leflual confli6l. They cannot afford to waste time in attacking 
each other. 

After all, the Agnostic and the Positivist have the same end 
in view — both believe in living for this world. 

The theologians, finding themselves unable to answer the 
arguments that have been urged, resort to the old subterfuge 
— to the old cry that Agnosticism takes something of value 
from the life of man. Does the Agnostic take any consolation 
from the world ? Does he blot out, or dim, one star in the 
heaven of hope ? Can there be anything more consoling than 
to feel, to know, that Jehovah is not God — that the message 
of the Old Testament is not from the infinite? 

Is it not enough to fill the brain with a happiness unspeaka- 
ble to know that the words, ' ' Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
everlasting fire/* will never be spoken to one of the children 
of men ? 

Is it a small thing to lift from the shoulders of industry the 
burdens of superstition ? Is it a little thing to drive the mon- 
ster of fear from the hearts of men ? 



ERNEST RENAN. 



*' Blessed are those 
Whose blood and judgment are so well co-mmgled 
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger 
To sound what stop she please.** 

ERNEST RENAN is dead. Another source of light ; an- 
other force of civilization ; another charming personality; 
another brave soul, graceful in thought, generous in deed ; a 
sculptor in speech, a colorist in words — clothing all in the 
poetry born of a delightful union of heart and brain — has 
passed to the realm of rest. 

Reared under the influences of Catholicism, educated for the 
priesthood, yet by reason of his natural genius, he began to 
think. Forces that utterly subjugate and enslave the mind of 
mediocrity sometimes rouse to thought and action the superior 
soul. 

Renan began to think — a dangerous thing for a Catholic to 
do. Thought leads to doubt, doubt to investigation, investi- 
gation to truth — the enemy of all superstition. 

He lifted the Catholic extinguisher from the light and flame 
of reason. He found that his mental vision was improved. 
He read the Scriptures for himself, examined them as he did 
other books not claiming to be inspired. He found the same 
mistakes, the same prejudices, the same miraculous impossibil- 
ities in the book attributed to God that he found in those 
known to have been written by men. 

(45) 



46 ERNEST RENAN. 

Into the path of reason, or rather into the highway, Renan 
was led by Henriette, his sister, to whom he pays a tribute 
that has the perfume of a perfe6l flower. 

**I was,'' writes Renan, ** brought up by women and 
priests, and therein lies the whole explanation of my good 
qualities and of my defe6ls/' In most that he wrote is the 
tenderness of woman, only now and then a little touch of the 
priest showing itself, mostly in a reluflance to spoil the ivy 
by tearing down some prison built by superstition. 

In spite of the heartless ** scheme'' of things he still found 
it in his heart to say, ** When God shall be complete, He will 
be just," at the same time saying that *' nothing proves to us 
that there exists in the world a central consciousness- — a soul 
of the universe — and nothing proves the contrary." So, what- 
ever was the verdift of his brain, his heart asked for immortal- 
ity. He wanted his dream, and he was willing that others 
should have theirs. Such is the wish and will of all great 
souls. 

He knew the Church thoroughly and anticipated what 
would finally be written about him by churchmen : ^^ Having 
some experience of ecclesiastical writers I can sketch out in 
advance the way my biography will be written in Spanish in 
some Catholic review, of Santa Fe, in the year 2,000. Heavens! 
how black I shall be ! I shall be so all the more, because the 
Church when she feels that she is lost will end with malice. 
She will bite like a mad dog." 

He anticipated such a biography because he had thought for 
himself, and because he had expressed his thoughts — ^because 
he had declared that *'our universe, within the reach of our 
experience, is not governed by any intelligent reason. God, 
as the common herd understand him, the living God, the 
a6ling God — the God-Providence, does not show himself in 
the universe" — ^because he attacked the mythical and the 



ERNEST RENAN. 47 

miraculous in the life of Christ and sought to rescue from the 
calumnies of ignorance and faith a serene and lofty soul. 

The time has arrived when Jesus must become a myth or a 
man. The idea that he was the infinite God must be abandon- 
ed by all who are not religiously insane. Those who have 
given up the claim that he was God, insist that he was divinely 
appointed and illuminated ; that he was a perfe6l man — the 
highest possible type of the human race and^ consequently, a 
perfedi example for all the world. 

As time goes on, as men get wider or grander or more com- 
plex ideas of life, as the intelledual horizon broadens, the idea 
that Christ was perfe6l may be modified. 

The New Testament seems to describe several individuals 
under the same name, or at least one individual who passed 
tlirough several stages or phases of religious development. 
Christ is described as a devout Jew, as one who endeavored to 
comply in all respedls with the old law. Many sayings are 
attributed to him consistent with this idea. He certainly was 
a Hebrew in belief and feehng when he said '' Swear not by 
Heaven, because it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his 
footstool ; nor by Jerusalem, for it is His holy city." These 
reasons were in exadl accordance with the mythology of 
the Jews. God was regarded simply as an enormous man, 
as one who walked in the garden in the cool of the evening, 
as one who had met man face to face, who had conversed 
with Moses for forty days upon Mount Sinai, as a great king, 
with a throne in the heavens, using the earth to rest his feet 
upon, and regarding Jerusalem as His holy city. 

Then we find plenty of evidence that he wished to reform the 
religion of the Jews ; to fulfill the law, not to abrogate it. 
Then there is still another change : he has ceased his efforts to 
reform that religion and has become a destroyer. He holds 
the Temple in contempt and repudiates the idea that Jerusalem 



48 ERNEST RENAnI 

is the holy city. He concludes that it is unnecessary to go to 
some mountain or some building to worship or to find God, 
and insists that the heart is the true temple, that ceremonies 
are useless, that all pomp and pride and show are needless, 
and that it is enough to worship God under heaven's dome, in 
spirit and in truth. 

It is impossible to harmonize these views unless we admit 
that Christ was the subje6l of growth and change ; that in con- 
sequence of growth and change he modified his views ; that, 
from wanting to preserve Judaism as it was, he became con- 
vinced that it ought to be reformed. That he then abandoned 
the idea of reformation, and made up his mind that the only 
reformation of which the Jewish religion was capable was de- 
stru6lion. If he was in fa(5l a man, then the course he pur- 
sued was natural ; but if he was God, it is perfectly absurd. 
If we give to him perfe6l knowledge, then it is impossible to 
account for change or growth. If, on the other hand, the 
ground is taken that he was a perfect man, then, it might be 
asked. Was he perfe<5l when he wished to preserve, or when 
he wished to reform, or when he resolved to destroy, the relig- 
ion of the Jews? If he is to be regarded as perfedl, although 
not divine, when did he reach perfedlion ? 

It is perfedlly evident that Christ, or the charafter that bears 
that name, imagined that the world was about to be destroyed, 
or at least purified by fire, and that, on account of this curious 
belief, he became the enemy of marriage, of all earthly ambi- 
tion and of all enterprise. With that view in his mind, he said 
to himself, * * Why should we waste our energies in producing 
food for destru<5lion ? Why should we endeavor to beautify a 
world that is so soon to perish? '* Filled with the thought of 
coming change, he insisted that there was but one important 
thing, and that was for each man to save his soul. He should 
care nothing for the ties of kindred, nothing for wife or child 



ERNEST RENAN. 49 

or property, in the shadow of the coming disaster. He should 
take care of himself. He endeavored, as it is said, to induce 
men to desert all they had, to let the dead, bury the dead, 
and follow him. He told his disciples, or those he wished to 
make his disciples, according to the Testament, that it was 
their duty to desert wife and child and property, and if they 
would so desert kindred and wealth, he would reward them 
here and hereafter. 

We know now — if we know anything — that Jesus was mis- 
taken about the coming of the end, and we know now that he 
was greatly controlled in his ideas of life, by that mistake. 
Believing that the end was near, he said, **Take no thought 
for the morrow, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink or 
wherewithal ye shall be clothed." It was. in view of the de- 
struflion of the world that he called the attention of his disci- 
ples to the lily that toiled not and yet excelled Solomon in the 
glory of its raiment. Having made this mistake, having a6led 
upon it, certainly we cannot^ now say that he was perfeft in 
knowledge. 

He is regarded by many millions as the impersonation of 
patience, of forbearance, of meekness and mercy, and yet, 
according to the account, he said many extremely bitter words, 
and threatened eternal pain. 

We also know, if the account be true, that he claimed to 
have supernatural power, to work miracles, to cure the blind 
and to raise the dead, and we know that he did nothing of the 
kind. So if the writers of the New Testament tell the truth as 
to what Christ claimed, it is absurd to say that he was a per- 
fe6l man. If honest, he was deceived, and those who are de- 
ceived are not perfe6l. 

There is nothing in the New Testament, so far as we know, 
that touches on the duties of nation to nation, or of nation to 
its citizens ; nothing of human liberty ; not one word about 



50 ERNEST RENAN. 

education ; not the faintest hint that there is such a thing as 
science ; nothing calculated to stimulate industry, commerce, 
^or invention ; not one word in favor of art, of music or any- 
thing calculated to feed or clothe the body, nothing to develop 
the brain of man. 

When it is assumed that the life of Christ, as described in 
the New Testament, is perfe6l, we at least take upon ourselves 
the burden of deciding what perfe6lion is. People who as- 
serted that Christ was divine, that he was actually God, 
reached the conclusion, without any laborious course of rea- 
soning, that all he said and did was absolute perfedion. 
They said this because they had first been convinced that he 
was divine. The moment his divinity is given up and the 
assertion is made that he was perfe6l, we are not permitted to 
reason in that way. They said he was God, therefore pcrfeft. 
Now, if it is admitted that he was human, the conclusion that 
he was perfe6l does not follow. We then take the burden 
upon ourselves of deciding what perfedlion is. To decide 
what is perfe6l is beyond the powers of the human mind. 

Renan, in spite of his education, regarded Christ as a man. 
and did the best he could to account for the miracles that had 
been attributed to him, for the legends that had gathered 
about his name, and the impossibilities conne6led with his 
career, and also tried to account for the origin or birth of these 
miracles, of these legends, of these myths, including the res- 
urrection and ascension. I am not satisfied with all the con- 
clusions he reached or with all the paths he traveled. The 
refradlion of light caused by passing through a woman's tears 
is hardly a sufficient foundation for a belief in so miraculous a 
miracle as the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ. 

There is another thing attributed to Christ that seems to me 
conclusive evidence against the claim of perfe6lion. Christ i^ 
reported to have said that all sins could be forgiven except the 



ERNEST RENAN. 5I 

Sin against the Holy Ghost. This sin, however, is not de- 
fined. Although Christ died for the whole world, that through 
him all might be saved, there is this one terrible exception: 
There is no salvation for those who have sinned, or who may 
hereafter sin, against the Holy Ghost. Thousands of persons 
^re now in asylums, having lost their reason because of their 
fear that they had committed this unknown, this undefined, 
this unpardonable sin. 

It is said that a Roman Emperor went through a form of 
publishing his laws or proclamations, posting them so high on 
pillars that they could not be read, and then took the lives of 
those who ignorantly violated these unknown laws. He was 
regarded as a tyrant, as a murderer. And yet, what shall we 
say of one who declared that the sin against the Holy Ghost 
was the only one that could not be forgiven, and then left an 
ignorant world to guess what that sin is ? Undoubtedly this 
horror is an interpolation. 

There is something like it in the Old Testament. It is as- 
serted by Christians that the Ten Commandments are the 
foundation of all law and of all civilization, and you will find 
lawyers insisting that the Mosaic Code was the first informa- 
tion that man received on the subje6l of law ; that before that 
time the world was without any knowledge of justice or mercy. 
If this be true the Jews had no divine laws, no real instrudion 
on any legal subje6l until the Ten Commandments were given. 
Consequently, before that time there had been proclaimed or 
published no law against the worship of other gods or of idols. 
Moses had been on Mount Sinai talking with Jehovah. At 
the end of the dialogue he received the Tables of Stone and 
started down the mountain for the purpose of imparting this 
information to his followers. When he reached the camp he 
heard music. He saw people dancing, and he found that in 
his absence Aaron and the rest of the people had cast a molten 



52 ERNEST REN AN. 

calf which they were then worshipping. This so enraged 
Moses that he broke the Tables of Stone and made prepara- 
tions for the punishment of the Jews. Remember that they 
knew nothing about this law, and, according to the modern 
Christian claims, could not have known that it was wrong to 
melt gold and silver and mould it in the form of a calf. And 
yet Moses killed about thirty thousand of these people for 
having violated a law of which they had never heard ; a law 
known only to one man and one God. Nothing could be 
more unjust, more ferocious, than this ; and yet it can hardly 
be said to exceed in cruelty the announcement that a certain 
sin was unpardonable and then fail to define the sin. Possi- 
bly, to inquire what the sin is, is the sin. 

Renan regards Jesus as a man, and his work gets its value 
from the fa6l that it is written from a human standpoint. At 
the same time he, consciously or unconsciously, or may be 
for the purpose of sprinkling a little holy water on the heat of 
religious indignation, now and then seems to speak of him as 
more than human, or as having accomplished something that 
man could not. 

He asserts that * * the Gospels are in part legendary ; that 
they contain many things not true ; that they are full of mira- 
cles and of the supernatural.'' At the same time he insists 
that these legends, these miracles, these supernatural things 
do not affe6l the truth of the probable things contained in 
these writings. He sees, and sees clearly, that there is no 
evidence that Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John wrote the 
books attributed to them ; that, as a matter of fa6t, the mere 
title of '* according to Matthew," ** according to Mark," 
shows that they were written by others who claimed them to 
be in accordance with the stories that had been told by 
Matthew or by Mark. So Renan takes the ground that the 
Gospel of Luke is founded on anterior documents and ' ' is the 



ERNEST RENAN. 53 

work of a man who sele6led, pruned and combined, and that 
the same man wrote the Acts of the Apostles and in the same 
way. ' * 

The Gospels were certainly written long after the events 
described, and Renan finds the reason for this in the fa6l that 
the Christians believed that the world was about to end ; that, 
consequently, there was no need of composing books ; it was 
only necessary for them to preserve in their hearts during the 
little margin of time that remained a lively image of Him whom 
they soon expe6led to meet in the clouds. For this reason the 
Gospels themselves had but little authority for 150 years, the 
Christians relying on oral traditions. Renan shows that there 
was not the slightest scruple about inserting additions in the 
Gospels, variously combining them, and in completing some 
by taking parts from others ; that the books passed from hand 
to hand, and that each one transcribed in the margin of his 
copy the words and parables he had found elsewhere which 
touched him ; that it was not until human tradition became 
weakened that the text bearing the names of the Apostles be- 
came authoritative. 

Renan has criticised the Gospels somewhat in the same spirit 
that he would criticise a modern work. He saw clearly that 
the metaphysics filling the discourses of John were deformities 
and distortions, full of mysticism, having nothing to do really 
with the chara6ler of Jesus. He shows too ''that the simple 
idea of the Kingdom of God, at the time the Gospel according 
to St. John was written, had faded away ; that the hope of the 
advent of Christ was growing dim, and that from belief the 
Disciples passed into discussion, from discussion to dogma, 
from dogma to ceremony,'' and, finding that the new Heaven 
and the new Earth were not coming as expected, they turned 
their attention to governing the old heaven and the old Earth. 
The Disciples were willing to be humble for a few days, with 



54 ERNEST RENAN. 

the expedlation of wearing crowns forever. They were satis- 
fied with poverty, believing that the wealth of the world was to 
be theirs. The coming of Christ, however, being for some 
unaccountable reason delayed, poverty and humility grew irk- 
some, and human nature began to assert itself. 

In the Gospel of John you will find the metaphysics of the 
Church. There you find the Second Birth. There you find 
the doctrine of the Atonement clearly set forth. There you 
find that God died for the whole world, and that whosoever 
believeth not in Him is to be damned. There is nothing of the 
kind in Matthew. Matthew makes Christ say that, if you will 
forgive others, God will forgive you. The Gospel ** according 
to Mark'* is the same. So is the Gospel ''according to Luke.'* 
There is nothing about salvation through belief, nothing about 
the Atonement. In Mark, in the last chapter, the Apostles are 
told to go into all the world and preach the Gospel, with the 
statement that whoever believed and was baptised should be 
saved, and whoever failed to believe should be damned. But 
we now know that that is an interpolation. Consequently, 
Matthew, Mark and Luke never had the faintest conception of 
the ** Christian religion/' They knew nothing of the Atone- 
ment, nothing of salvation by faith — nothing. So that if a 
man had read only Matthew, Mark and Luke, and had stri6lly 
followed what he found, he would have found himself, after 
death, in perdition. 

Renan finds that certain portions of the Gospel ' * according 
to John" were added later ; that the entire twenty-first chap- 
ter is an interpolation ; also, that many places bear the traces 
of erasures and corrections. So he says that it would be ** im- 
possible for any one to compose a life of Jesus, with any mean- 
ing in it, from the discourses which John attributes to him, and 
he holds that this Gospel of John is full of preaching, Christ 
demonstrating himself; full of argumentation, full of stage 



ERNEST RENAN. 55 

effe(5l, devoid of simplicity, with long arguments after each mir- 
acle, stiff and awkward discourses, the tone of which is often 
false and unequal." He also insists that there are evidently 
** artificial portions, variations like that of a musician improvising 
on a given theme/' 

In spite of all this, Renan, willing to soothe the prejudice of 
his time, takes the ground that the four canonical gospels are 
authentic, that they date from the first century, that the authors 
were, generally speaking, those to whom they are attributed ; 
but he insists that their historic value is very diverse. This is 
a back-handed stroke. Admitting, first, that they are authen- 
tic ; second, that they w^ere written about the end of the first 
century ; third, that they are not of equal value, disposes, so 
far as he is concerned, of the dogma of inspiration. 

One is at a loss to understand why four Gospels should have 
been written. As a matter of facl there can be only one true 
account of any occurrence, or of any number of occurrences. 
Now, it must be taken for granted, that an inspired account is 
true. Why then should there be four inspired accounts ? It ' 
may be answered that all were not to write the entire stor\\ 
To this the reply is that all attempted to cover substantially the 
same ground. 

Many years ago the early fathers thought it necessary to say 
why there were four inspired books, and some of them said, 
because there v/ere four cardinal direflions and the Gospels 
fitted the north, south, east and west. Others said that 
there were four principal winds — a gospel for each wind. They 
might have added that some animals have four legs. 

Renan admits that the narrative portions have not the same 
authority ; *' that many legends proceeded from the zeal of the 
second Christian generation ; that the narrative of Luke is 
historically weak ; that sentences attributed to Jesus have 
been distorted and exaggerated ; that the book was written out- 



56 ERNEST RENAN. 

side of Palestine and after the siege of Jerusalem ; that Luke 
endeavors to make the different narratives agree, changing 
them for that purpose ; that he softens the passages which had 
become embarrassing ; that he exaggerated the marvellous, 
omitted errors in chronology ; that he was a compiler, a man 
who had not been an eye-witness himself, and who had not 
seen eye-witnesses, but who labors at texts and wrests their 
sense to make them agree.'' This certainly is very far from 
inspiration. So ** Luke interprets the documents according to 
his own idea ; being a kind of anarchist, opposed to proper- 
ty, and persuaded that the triumph of the poor was ap- 
proaching ; that he was especially fond of the anecdotes show- 
ing the conversion of sinners, the exaltation of the humble, 
and that he modified ancient traditions to give them this 
meaning. ' ' 

Renan reached the conclusion that the Gospels are neither 
biographies after the manner of Suetonius nor fictitious le- 
gends in the style of Philostratus, but that they are legendary 
biographies like the legends of the saints, the lives of Plotinus 
and Isidore, in which historical truth and the desire to present 
models of virtue are combined in various degrees ; that they 
are ** inexa6l ;'' that they ** contain numerous errors and dis- 
cordances." So he takes the ground that twenty or thirty 
years after Christ His reputation had greatly increased, that 
'* legends had begun to gather about Him like clouds," that 
** death added to His perfe6lion, freeing Him from all defefts 
in the eyes of those who had loved Him, that His followers 
wrested the prophecies so that they might fit Him. They said, 
' He is the Messiah.' The Messiah was to do certain things ; 
therefore Jesus did certain things. Then an account would be 
given of the doing. ' ' All of which of course shows that there 
can be maintained no theory of inspiration. 

It is admitted that where individuals are witnesses of the 



ERNEST RENAN. 57 

same transa6lion, and where they agree upon the vital points 
and disagree upon details, the disagreement may be consistent 
with their honesty, as tending to show that they have not 
agreed upon a story ; but if the witnesses are inspired of 
God then there is no reason for their disagreeing on anything, 
and if they do disagree it is a demonstration that they were 
not inspired, but it is not a demonstration that they are not 
honest. While perfe6l agreement may be evidence of re- 
hearsal, a failure to" perfe6lly agree is not a demonstration of 
the truth or falsity of a story ; but if the witnesses claim to be 
inspired, the slightest disagreement is a demonstration that 
they were not inspired. 

Renan reaches the conclusion, proving every step that he 
takes, that the four principal documents — that is to say, the 
four Gospels — are in ' ' flagrant contradiction one with another. " 
He attacks, and with perfe6l success, the miracles of the 
Scriptures, and upon this subje6t says : " Observation, which 
has never once been falsified, teaches us that miracles never 
happen, but in times and countries in which they are believed 
and before persons disposed to believe them. No miracle 
ever occurred in the presence of men capable of testing its 
miraculous charafter. ' ' He further takes the ground that no 
contemporary miracle will bear inquiry, and that consequently 
it is probable that the miracles of antiquity which have been 
performed in popular gatherings would be shown to be simple 
illusion, were it possible to criticise them in detail. In the 
name of universal experience he banishes miracles from his- 
tory. These were brave things to do, things that will bear 
good fruit. As long as men believe in miracles, past or pres- 
ent, they remain the prey of superstition. The Catholic is 
taught that miracles were performed [anciently [not only, but 
that they are still being performed. This is consistent incon- 
sistency. Protestants teach a double doctrine : That miracles 



58 ERNEST RENAN. 

used to be performed, that the laws of nature used to be vio- 
lated, but that no miracle is performed now. No Protestant 
will admit that any miracle was performed by the Catholic 
Church. Otherwise, Protestants could not be justified in leav- 
ing a church with whom the God of miracles dwelt. So 
every Protestant has to adopt two kinds of reasoning ; that 
the laws of Nature used to be violated and that miracles 
used to be performed, but that since the apostolic age Nature 
has had her way and the Lord has allowed fa6ls to exist and to 
hold the field. A supernatural account, according to Renan, 
'' always implies credulity or imposture," — probably both. 

It does not seem possible to me that Christ claimed for him- 
self what the Testament claims for him. These claims were 
made by admirers, by followers, by missionaries. 

When the early Christians went to Rome they found plenty 
of demigods. It was hard to set aside the religion of a demi- 
god by telling the story of a man from Nazareth. These mis- 
sionaries, not to be outdone in ancestry, insisted — and this was 
after the Gospel '* according to St. John " had been written — 
that Christ was the Son of God. Matthew beheved that he 
was the son of David, and the Messiah, and gave the geneal- 
ogy of Joseph, his father, to support that claim. 

In the time of Christ no one imagined that he was of divine 
origin. This was an after-growth. In order to place them- 
selves on an equality with Pagans they started the claim of 
divinity, and also took the second step requisite in that coun- m 
try : First, a god for his father, and second, a virgin for his 
mother. This was the Pagan combination of greatness, and 
the Christians added to this that Christ was God. 

It is hard to agree with the conclusion reached by Renan, 
that Christ formed and intended to form a church. Such evi- 
dence, it seems to me, is hard to find in the Testament. 
Chiist seemed to satisfy himself, according to the Testament, Ij 



ERNEST RENAN. 59 

with a few statements, some of them exceedingly wise and 
tender, some utterly impraflicable and some intolerant. 

If we accept the conclusions reached by Renan we will throw 
away, the legends without foundation ; the miraculous legends ; 
and everything inconsistent with what we know of Nature. 
Very little will be left — a few sayings to be found among those 
attributed to Confucius, to Buddha, to Krishna, to Epidetus, 
to Zeno, and to many others. Some of these sayings are full 
of wisdom, full of kindness, and others rush to such extremes 
that they touch the borders of insanity. When struck on one 
cheek to turn the other, js really joining a conspiracy to secure 
the triumph of brutality. To agree not to resist evil is to be- 
come an accomplice of all injustice. We must not take from 
industry, from patriotism, from virtue the right of self-defence. 

Undoubtedly Renan gave an honest transcript of his mind, 
the road his thought had followed, the reasons in their order 
that had occurred to him, the criticisms born of thought, and 
the qualifications, softening phrases, children of old senti- 
ments and emotions that had not entirely passed away. 
He started, one might say, from the altar and, during a con- 
siderable part of the journey, carried the incense wuth him. 
The farther he got away, the greater was his clearness of vision 
and the more thoroughly he was convinced that Christ was 
merely a man, an idealist. But, remembering the altar, he 
excused exaggeration in the *' inspired'* books, not because it 
was from heaven, not because it was in harmony with our 
ideas of veracity, but because the writers of the Gospel were 
imbued with the Oriental spirit of exaggeration, a spirit per- 
fedlly understood by the people who first read the Gospels, 
because the readers knew the habits of the writers. 

It had been contended for many years that no one could 
pass judgment on the veracity of the Scriptures who did not 
understand Hebrew, This position was perfe6lly absurd. No 



6o ERNEST RENAN. 

man needs to be a student of Hebrew to know that the shadow 
on the dial did not go back several degrees to convince a petty 
king that a boil was not to be fatal. Renan, however, filled the 
requirement. He was an excellent Hebrew scholar. This was 
a fortunate circumstance, because it answered a very old 
objeflion. 

The founder of Christianity was, for his own sake, taken 
from the divine pedestal and allowed to stand like other men 
on the earth, to be judged by what he said and did, by his 
theories, by his philosophy, by his spirit. 

No matter whether Renan came to a corre6l conclusion or 
not, his work did a vast deal of good. He convinced many 
that implicit reliance could not be placed upon the Gospels, 
that the Gospels themselves are of unequal worth ; that they 
were deformed by ignorance and falsehood, or, at least, by 
mistake ; that if they wished to save the reputation of Christ 
they must not rely wholly on the Gospels, or on what is found 
in the New Testament, but they must go farther and examine 
all legends touching him. Not only so, but they must throw 
away the miraculous, the impossible and the absurd. 

He also has shown that the early followers of Christ endeav- 
ored to add to the reputation of their Master by attributing to 
him the miraculous and the foolish ; that while these stories 
added to his reputation at that time, since the world has ad- 
vanced they must be cast aside or the reputation of the Master 
must suffer. 

It will not do now to say that Christ himself pretended to do 
miracles.. This would establish the fa6l at least that he was 
mistaken. But we are compelled to say that his disciples in- 
sisted that he was a worker of miracles. This shows, either 
that they were mistaken or untruthful. 

We all know that a sleight-of-hand performer could gain a 
greater reputation among savages than Darwin or Humboldt ; 



ERNEST REITAN. 6i 

and we know that the world in the time of Christ was filled 
with barbarians, with people who demanded the miraculous, 
who expefted it ; with people, in fa6t, who had a stronger be- 
lief in the supernatural than in the natural ; people who never 
thought it worth while to record fads. The hero of such 
people, the Christ of such people, with his miracles, cannot be 
the Christ of the thoughtful and scientific. 

Renan was a man of most excellent temper ; candid ; not 
striving for vidlory, but for truth ; conquering, as far as he 
could, the old superstitions ; not entirely free, it may be, but 
believing himself to be ^so. He did great good. He has 
helped to destroy the fictions of faith. He has helped to 
rescue man from the prison of superstition, and this is the 
greatest benefit that man can bestow on man. 

He did another great service, not only to Jews, but to Chris- 
tendom, by writing the history of **The People of Israel." 
Christians for many centuries have persecuted the Jews. They 
have charged them with the greatest conceivable crime — with 
having crucified an infinite God. This absurdity has hardened 
the hearts of men and poisoned the minds of children. The 
persecution of the Jews is the meanest, the most senseless and 
cruel page in history. Every civilized Christian should feel 
on his cheeks the red spots of shame as he reads the wretched 
and infamous story. 

The flame of this prejudice is fanned and fed in the Sun- 
day-schools of our day, and the orthodox minister points 
proudly to the atrocities perpetrated against the Jews by 
the barbarians of Russia as evidences of the truth of the in- 
spired Scriptures. In every wound God puts a tongue to 
proclaim the truth of his book. 

If the charge that the Jews killed God were true, it is hardly 
reasonable to hold those who are now living responsible for 
what their ancestors did nearly nineteen centuries ago. 



62 ERNEST RENAN. 

But there is another point in connexion with this matter. If 
Christ was God, then the Jews could not have killed him with- 
out his consent ; and, according to the orthodox creed, if he 
had not been sacrificed, the whole world would have suffered 
eternal pain. Nothing can exceed the meanness of the preju- 
dice of Christians against the Jewish people. They should not 
be held responsible for their savage ancestors, or for their be- 
lief that Jehovah was an intelligent and merciful God, superior 
to all other gods. Even Christians do not wish to be held re- 
sponsible for the Inquisition, for the Torquemadas and the 
John Calvins, for the witch-burners and the Quaker-whippers, 
for the slave-traders and child-stealers, the most of whom were 
believers in our *^ glorious gospel,'* and many of whom had 
been born the second time. 

Renan did much to civilize the Christians by telling the 
truth in a charming and convincing way about the ** People of 
Israel." Both sides are greatly indebted to him : one he has 
ably defended, and the other greatly enlightened. 

Having done what good he could in giving what he believed 
was light to his fellow men, he had no fear of becoming a vic- 
tim of God's wrath, and so he laughingly said: *'For my 
part I imagine that if the Eternal in his severity were to send 
me to hell I should succeed in escaping from it. I would send 
up to my Creator a supplication that would make him smile. 
The course of reasoning by which I would prove to him that it 
was through his fault that I was damned would be so subtle 
that he would find some difficulty in replying. The fate 
which would suit me best is Purgatory — a charming place, 
where many delightful romances begun on earth must be con- 
tinued." 

Such cheerfulness, such good philosophy, with cap and bells, 
such banter and blasphemy, such sound and solid sense drive 
to madness the priest who thinks the curse of Rome can fright 



ERNEST RENAN. 63 

the world. How the snake of superstition writhes when he 
finds that his fangs have lost their poison. 

He was one of the gentlest of men — one of the fairest in dis- 
cussion, dissenting from the views of others with modesty, 
presenting his own with clearness and candor. His mental 
manners were excellent. He was not positive as to the ' ' un- 
knowable.'' He said " Perhaps." He knew that knowledge 
is good if it increases the happiness of man ; and he felt that 
superstition is the assassin of liberty and civilization. He lived 
a life of cheerfulness, of industry, devoted to the welfare of 
mankind. 

He was a seeker of happiness by the highway of the natural, 
a destroyer of the dogmas of mental deformity, a worshipper 
of Liberty and the Ideal. As he lived, he died — hopeful and 
serene — and now, standing in imagination by his grave, we 
ask will the night be eternal ? The brain says Perhaps ; while 
the heart hopes for the Dawn. 

November y i8g2. 



TOLSTOI AND "THE KREUTZER SONATA." 

COUNT TOLSTOI is a man of genius. He is acquainted 
with Russian life from the highest to the lowest — that 
is to say, from the worst to the best. He knows the vices of 
the rich and the virtues of the poor. He is a Christian, a real 
believer in the Old and New Testaments, an honest follower of 
the Peasant of Palestine. He denounces luxury and ease, art 
and music ; he regards a flower with suspicion, believing that 
beneath every blossom lies a coiled serpent. He agrees with 
Lazarus and denounces Dives and the tax-gatherers. He is 
opposed, not only to doctors of divinity, but of medicine. 

From the Mount of Olives he surveys the world. 

He is not a Christian like the Pope in the Vatican, or a car- 
dinal in a palace, or a bishop with revenues and retainers, or 
a millionaire who hires preachers to point out the wickedness 
of the poor, or the director of a museum who closes the doors 
on Sunday. He is a Christian something like Christ. 

To him this life is but a breathing-spell between the verdict 

and the execution ; the sciences are simply sowers of the seeds 

of pride, of arrogance and vice. Shocked by the cruelties and 

unspeakable horrors of war, he became a non-resistant and 

averred that he would not defend his own body or that of his 

daughter from insult and outrage. In this he followed the 

command of his Master : " Resist not evil." He passed, not 

simply from war to peace, but from one extreme to the other, 

and advocated a doctrine that would leave the basest of man- 

(64) 



TOLSTOI AND *'THE KREUTZER SONATA.'^ 65 

kiild the rulers of the world. This was and is the ^rror of a 
great and tender soul. 

He did not accept all the teachings of Christ at once. His 
progress has been, judging from his writings, somewhat grad- 
ual ; but by accepting one proposition he prepared himself for 
the acceptance of another. He is not only a Christian, but has 
the courage of his convictions, and goes without hesitation to 
the logical conclusion. He has another exceedingly rare 
quality ; he acts in accordance with his belief. His creed is 
translated into deed. He opposes the doctors of divinity, be- 
cause they darken and def6rm the teachings of the Master. 
He denounces the doctors of medicine, because he depends on 
Providence and the promises of Jesus Christ. To him that 
which is called progress is, in fact, a profanation, and property 
is a something that the organized few have stolen from the 
unorganized many. He believes in universal labor, which is 
good, each working for himself He also believes that each 
should have only the necessaries of life — which is bad. Ac- 
cording to his idea, the world ought to be filled with peasants. 
There should be only arts enough to plough and sow and 
gather the harvest, to build huts, to weave coarse cloth, to 
fashion clumsy and useful garments, and to cook the simplest 
food. Men and women should not adorn their bodies. They 
should not make themselves desirable or beautiful. 

But even under such circumstances they might, like the 
Quakers, be proud of humility and become arrogantly meek. 

Tolstoi would change the entire order of human develop- 
ment. As a matter of fact, the savage who adorns himself or 
herself with strings of shells, or with feathers, has taken the 
first step towards civilization. The tatooed is somewhat in 
advance of the unfrescoed. At the bottom of all this is the 
love of approbation, of the admiration of their fellows, and 
this feeling, this love, cannot be torn from the human heart. 



66 TOLSTOI AND 

In spite of ourselves we are attracted by what to us is beautiful, 
because beauty is associated with pleasure, with enjoyment. 
The love of the well-formed, of the beautiful, is prophetic of 
the perfection of the human race. It is impossible to admire 
the deformed. They may be loved for their goodness or 
genius, but never because of their deformity. There is within 
us the love of proportion. There is a physical basis for the 
appreciation of harmony, which is also a kind of proportion. 

The love of the beautiful is shared with man by most animals. 
The wings of the moth are painted by love, by desire. This 
is the foundation of the bird's song. This love of approbation, 
this desire to please, to be admired, to be loved, is in some 
way the cause of all heroic, self-denying, and sublime ac- 
tions. 

Count Tolstoi, following parts of the New Testament, re- 
gards love as essentially impure. He seems really to think 
that there is a love superior to human love ; that the love of 
man for woman, of woman for man, is, after all, a kind of glit- 
tering degradation ; that it is better to love God than woman ; 
better to love the invisible phantoms of the skies than the 
children upon our knees — in other words, that it is far better 
to love a heaven somewhere else than to make one here. He 
seems to think that women adorn themselves simply for the 
purpose of getting in their power the innocent and unsuspect- 
ing men. He forgets that the best and purest of human beings 
are controlled, for the most part unconsciously, by the hidden, 
subtle tendencies of nature. He seems to forget the great fa6l 
of ** natural selection,*' and that the choice of one in preference 
to all others is the result of forces beyond the control of the 
individual. To him there seems to be no purity in love, be- 
cause men are influenced by forms, by the beauty of women ; 
and women, knowing this fact, according to him, act, and con- 
sequently both are equally guilty. He endeavors to show that 



TOLSTOI AND **THE KREUTZER SONATA.** 67 

love is a delusion ; that at best it can last but for a few days ; 
that it must of necessity be succeeded by indifference, then by 
disgust, lastly by hatred ; that in every Garden of Eden is a 
serpent of jealousy, and that the brightest days end with the 
yawn of ennui. 

Of course he is driven to the conclusion that life in this world 
is without value, that the race can be perpetuated only by vice, 
and that the practice of the highest virtue would leave the 
world without the form of man. Strange as it may sound to 
some, this is the same conclusion reached by his Divine Mas- 
ter : *^They did eat, they drank, they married, they were 
given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered the ark and 
the flood came and destroyed them all.'* '* Every one that 
hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or 
mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, 
shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.'* 

According to Christianity, as it really is and really was, the 
Christian should have no home in this world — at least none 
until the earth has been purified by fire. His affections should 
be given to God ; not to wife and children, not to friends or 
country. He is here but for a time on a journey, waiting for 
the summons. This life is a kind of dock running out into the 
sea of eternity, on which he waits for transportation. Nothing 
here is of any importance ; the joys of life are frivolous and 
corrupting, and by losing these few gleams of happiness in this 
world he will bask forever in the unclouded rays of infinite joy. 
Why should a man risk an eternity of perfect happiness for 
the sake of enjoying himself a few days with his wife and 
children ? Why should he become an eternal outcast for the 
sake of having a home and fireside here ? 

The " Fathers ** of the church had the same opinion of mar- 
riage. They agreed with Saint Paul, and Tolstoi agrees with 
them. — They had the same contempt for wives and mothers, 



68 TOLSTOI AND '' THE KREUTZER SONATA.'' 

and uttered the same blasphemies against that divine passion 
that has filled the world with art and song. 

All this is to my mind a kind of insanity ; nature soured or 
withered — deformed so that celibacy is mistaken for virtue. 
The imagination becomes polluted, and the poor wretch be- 
lieves that he is purer than his thoughts, holier than his desires, 
and that to outrage nature is the highest form of religion. But 
nature imprisoned, obstructed, tormented, always has sought 
for and has always found revenge. Some of these victims, re- 
garding the passions as low and corrupting, feeling humiliated 
by hunger and thirst, sought through maimings and mutila- 
tions .the purification of the soul. 

Count Tolstoi in ' ' The Kreutzer Sonata,'' has drawn, with 
a free hand, one of the vilest and basest of men for his hero. 
He is suspicious, jealous, cruel, infamous. The wife is infi- 
nitely too good for such a wild unreasoning beast, and yet the 
writer of this insane story seems to justify the assassin. If this 
is a true picture of wedded life in Russia, no wonder that 
Count Tolstoi looks forward with pleasure to the extinction of 
the human race. 

Of all passions that can take possession of the heart or brain 
jealousy is the worst. For many generations the chemists 
sought for the secret by which all metals could be changed to 
gold, and through which the basest could become the best. 
Jealousy seeks exactly the opposite. It endeavors to trans- 
mute the very gold of love into the dross of shame and crime. 

The story of ' ' The Kreutzer Sonata ' ' seems to have been 
written for the purpose of showing that woman is at fault ; that 
she has no right to be attractive, no right to be beautiful ; and 
that she is morally responsible for the contour of her throat, 
for the pose of her body, for the symmetry of her limbs, for 
the red of her lips, and for the dimples in her cheeks. 

The opposite of this doctrine is nearer true. It would be 



i 



TOLSTOI AND *' THE KREUTZER SONATA.** 69 

far better to hold people responsible for their ugliness than for 
their beauty. It may be true that the soul, the mind, in some 
wondrous way fashions the body, and that to that extent every 
individual is responsible for his looks. It may be that the 
man or w^oman thinking high thoughts w^ill give, necessarily, a 
nobility to expression and a beauty to outline. 

It is not true that the sins of man can be laid justly at the 
feet of woman. Women are better than men ; they have /' 
greater responsibilities; they bear even the burdens of joy. " 
This is the real reason why their faults are considered greater. / 
/ Men and women desire each other, and this desire is a con- 
' dition of civilization, progress, and happiness, and of every- 
thing of real value. But there is this profound difference in 
the sexes : in man this desire is the foundation of love, while 
in woman love is the foundation of this desire. 

Tolstoi seems to be a stranger to the heart of woman. 

Is it not wonderful that one who holds self-denial in such 
high esteem should say, ' ' That life is embittered by the fear 
of one's children, and not only on account of their real or 
imaginary illnesses, but even by their very presence?** 

Has the father no real love for the children ? Is he not paid 
a thousand times through their caresses, their sympathy, their 
love? Is there no joy in seeing their minds unfold, their 
affections develop ? Of course, love and anxiety go together. 
That which we love we wish to protect. The perpetual fear of . 
death gives love intensity and sacredness. Yet Count Tolstoi 
gives us the feelings of a father incapable of natural affection ; 
of one who hates to have his children sick because the orderly 
course of his wretched life is disturbed. So, too, we are told 
that modern mothers think too much of their children, care too 
much for their health, and refuse to be comforted when they 
die. Lest these words may be thought Hbellous, the following 
extract is given : 



70 TOLSTOi AND "THE KREUTZER SONATA. 

*'In old times women consoled themselves with the belief, The 
Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the 
name of the Lord. They consoled themselves with the thought that 
the soul of the departed had returned to him who gave it ; that it was 
better to die innocent than to live in sin. If women nowadays had 
such a comfortable faith to support them, they might take their mis- 
fortunes less hard." 

The conclusion reached by the writer is that without faith in 
God woman's love grovels in the mire. 

In this case the mire is made by the tears of mother's falling 
on the clay that hides their babes. 

The one thing constant, the one peak that rises above all 
clouds, the one window in which the light forever burns, the 
one star that darkness cannot quench, is woman's love. 

This one fact justifies the existence and the perpetuation of 
the human race. Again I say that women are better than men ; 
their hearts are more unreservedly given ; in the web of their 
lives sorrow is inextricably woven with the greatest joys ; self- 
sacrifice is a part of their nature^ and at the behest of love and 
maternity they walk willingly and joyously down to the very 
gates of death. 

Is there nothing in this to excite the admiration, the adora- 
tion, of a modern reformer? Are the monk and nun superior 
to the father and mother ? 

The author of '' The Kreutzer Sonata" is unconsciously the 
enemy of mankind. He is filled with what might be called a 
merciless pity, a sympathy almost malicious. Had he lived a 
few centuries ago, he might have founded a religion ; but the 
most he can now do is, perhaps, to create the necessity for 
another asylum. 

Count Tolstoi objects to music — not the ordinary kind, but 
to great music, the music that arouses the emotions, that ap- 
parently carries us beyond the limitations of life, that for the 



TOLSTOI AND *'THE KREUTZER SONATA.'* 7 1 

moment seems to break the great chain of cause and effect, and 
leaves the soul soaring and free. ''Emotion and duty,'' he 
declares, ''do not go hand in hand." All art touches and 
arouses the emotional nature. The painter, the poet, the 
sculptor, the composer, the orator, appeal to the emotions, to 
the passions, to the hopes and fears. The commonplace is 
transfigured ; the cold and angular facts of existence take form 
and color ; the blood quickens ; the fancies spread their wings ; 
the intellect grows sympathetic ; the river of life flows full and 
free ; and man becomes capable of the noblest deeds. Take 
emotion from the heart of man and the idea of obligation would 
be lost ; right and wrong would lose their meaning, and the 
word " ought" would never again be spoken. We are sub- 
ject to conditions, liable to disease, pain, and death. We are 
capable of ecstasy. Of these conditions, of these possibilities, 
the emotions are born. 

Only the conditionless can be the emotionless. 

We are conditioned beings ; and if the conditions are 
changed, the result may be pain or death or greater joy. We 
can only live within certain degrees of heat. If the weather 
were a few degrees hotter or a few degrees colder, we could 
not exist. We need food and roof and raiment. Life and 
happiness depend on these conditions. We do not certainly 
know what is to happen, and consequently our hopes and fears 
are constantly active — that is to say, we are emotional 
beings. The generalization of Tolstoi, that emotion never 
goes hand in hand with duty, is almost the opposite of the 
truth. The idea of duty could not exist without emotion. 
Think of men and women without love, without desires, with- 
out passions ? Think of a world without art or music — a world 
without beauty, without emotion. 

And yet there are many writers busy pointing out the loath- 
someness of love and their own virtues. Only a little while 



72 TOLSTOI AND ** THE KREUTZER SONATA.*' 

ago an article appeared in one of the magazines in which all 
women who did not dress according to the provincial prudery 
of the writer were denounced as impure. Millions of refined 
and virtuous wives and mothers were described as dripping 
with pollution because they enjoyed dancing and were so well 
formed that they were not obliged to cover their arms and 
throats to avoid the pity of their associates. And yet the 
article itself is far more indelicate than any dance or any dress, 
or even lack of dress. What a curious opinion dried apples 
have of fruit upon the tree ! 

Count Tolstoi is also the enemy of wealth, of luxury. In 
this he follows the New Testament. ** It is easier for a camel 
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter 
the Kingdom of Heaven." He gathers his inspiration from 
the commandment, ** Sell all that thou hast and give to the 
poor.'* 

Wealth is not a crime any more than health or bodily or 
intellectual strength. The weak might denounce the strong, 
the sickly might envy the healthy, just as the poor may de- 
nounce or envy the rich. A man is not necessarily a criminal 
because he is wealthy. He is to be judged, not by his wealth, 
but by the way he uses his wealth. The strong man can use 
his strength, not only for the benefit of himself, but for the 
good of others. So a man of intelligence can be a benefactor 
of the human race. Intelligence is often used to entrap the 
simple and to prey upon the unthinking, but we do not wish 
to do away with intelligence. So strength is often used to 
tyrannize over the weak, and in the same way wealth may be 
used to the injury of mankind. To sell all that you have and 
give to the poor is not a panacea for poverty. The man of 
wealth should help the poor man to help himself Men can- 
not receive without giving some consideration, and if they have 
not labor or property to give, they give their manhood, their 



TOLSTOI AND '' THE KREUTZER SONATA. 73 

self-respect. Besides, if all should obey this injunction, "Sell 
what thou hast and give to the poor,'' who would buy? We 
know that thousands and millions of rich men lack generosity 
and have but little feeling for their fellows. The fault is not in 
the money, not in the wealth, but in the individuals. They 
would be just as bad w^ere they poor. The only difference is 
that they would have less power. The good man should re- 
gard wealth as an instrumentality, as an opportunity, and he 
should endeavor to benefit his fellowmen, not by making them 
the recipients of his charity, but by assisting them to assist 
themselves. The desire to clothe and feed, to educate and 
protect, wives and children, is the principal reason for making 
money — one of the great springs of industry, prudence, and 
economy. 

Those who labor have a right to live, They have a right to 
what they earn. He w^ho works has a right to home and fire- 
side and to the comforts of life. Those w^ho waste the spring, 
the summer, and the autumn of their lives must bear the win- 
ter when it comes. Many of our institutions are absurdly 
unjust. Giving the land to the few, making tenants of the 
many, is the w^orst possible form of socialism — of paternal 
government. In most of the nations of our day the idlers and 
non-producers are either beggars or aristocrats, paupers or 
princes, and the great middle laboring class support them both. 
Rags and robes have a liking for each other. Beggars and 
kings are in accord ; they are all parasites, living on the same 
blood, stealing the same labor — one by beggary, the other by 
force. And yet in all this there can be found no reason for 
denouncing the man who has accumulated. One who washes 
to tear down his barns and build greater has laid aside some- 
thing to keep the wolf of want from the door of home when he 
is dead. 

Even the beggars see the necessity of others working, and 



74 TOLSTOI AND *'THE KREUTZER SONATA." 

the nobility see the same necessity with equal clearness. But it 
is hardly reasonable to say that all should do the same kind of 
work, for the reason that all have not the same aptitudes, the 
same talents. Some can plough, others can paint ; some can 
reap and mow, while others can invent the instruments that 
save labor ; some navigate the seas ; some work in mines ; 
while others compose music that elevates and refines the heart 
of the world. 

But the worst thing in '*The Kreutzer Sonata'* is the 
declaration that a husband can by force compel the wife to love 
and obey him. Love is not the child of fear ; it is not the re- 
sult of force. No one can love on compulsion. Even Jehovah 
found that it was impossible to compel the Jews to love him. 
He issued his command to that effect, coupled with threats of 
pain and death, but his chosen people failed to respond. 

Love is the perfume of the heart ; it is not subject to the will 
of husbands, or kings, or God. 

Count Tolstoi' would establish slavery in every house ; he 
would make every husband a tyrant and every wife a trembling 
serf. No wonder that he regards such marriage as a failure. 
He is in exact harmony with the curse of Jehovah when he said 
unto the woman : ** I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy 
conception ; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy 
desire shall be unto thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." 

This is the destruction of the family, the pollution of home, 
the crucifixion of love. 

Those who are truly married are neither masters nor servants. 
The idea of obedience is lost in the desire for the happiness of 
each. Love is not a convict, to be detained with bolts and 
chains. Love is the highest expression of liberty. Love 
neither commands nor obeys. 

The curious thing is that the orthodox world insists that all 
men and women should obey the injunctions of Christ ; that 



TOLSTOI AND *'tHE KREUTZER SONATA.'' 75 

they should take him as the supreme example, and in all 
things follow his teachings. This is preached from countless 
pulpits, and has been for many centuries. And yet the man 
who does follow the Saviour, who insists that he will not resist 
evil, who sells what he has and gives to the poor, who deserts 
his wife and children for the love of God, is regarded as insane. 

Tolstoi, on most subjects, appears to be in accord with the 
founder of Christianity, with the Apostles, with the writers of 
the New Testament, and with the Fathers of the church ; and 
yet a Christian teacher of a Sabbath-school decides, in the 
capacity of Postmaster- General, that "The Kreutzer Sonata" 
is unfit to be carried in the mails. 

Although I disagree with nearly every sentence in this book, 
regard the story as brutal and absurd, the view of life pre- 
sented as cruel, vile, and false, yet I recognize the right of 
Count Tolstoi to express his opinions on all subjects, and the 
right of the men and women of America to read for themselves. 

As to the sincerity of the author, there is not the slightest 
doubt. He is willing to give all that he has for the good of 
his fellow-men. He is a soldier in what he believes to be a 
sacred cause, and he has the courage of his convictions. He 
is endeavoring to organize society in accordance with the most 
radical utterances that have been attributed to Jesus Christ. 
The philosophy of Palestine is not adapted to an industrial and 
commercial age. Christianity was born when the nation that 
produced it was dying. It was a requiem — a declaration that 
life was a failure, that the world was about to end, and that 
the hopes of mankind should be lifted to another sphere. 
Tolstoi stands with his back to the sunrise and looks mourn- 
fully upon the shadow. He has uttered many tender, noble, 
and inspiring words. There are many passages in his works 
that must have been written when his eyes were filled 
with tears. He has fixed his gaze so intently on the miseries 



76 TOLSTOI AND **THE KREUTZER SONATA." 

and agonies of life that he has been driven to the conclusion 
that nothing could be better than the effacement of the human 
race. 

Some men, looking only at the faults and tyrannies of gov- 
ernment, have said: *' Anarchy is better." Others looking 
at the misfortunes, the poverty, the crimes, of men, have, in a 
kind of pitying despair, reached the conclusion that the best 
of all is death. These are the opinions of those who have 
dwelt in gloom — of the self-imprisoned. 

By comparing long periods of time, we see that, on the 
whole, the race is advancing ; that the world is growing steadily, 
and surely, better ; that each generation enjoys more and 
suffers less than its predecessor. We find that our institutions 
have the faults of individuals. Nations must be composed of 
men and women ; and as they have their faults, nations cannot 
be perfect. The institution of marriage is a failure to the ex- 
tent, and only to the extent, that the human race is a failure. 
Undoubtedly it is the best and the most important institution 
that has been established by the civilized world. If there is 
unhappiness in that relation, if there is tyranny upon one side 
and misery upon the other, it is not the fault of marriage. 
Take homes from the world and only wild beasts are left. 

We cannot cure the evils of our day and time by a return to 
savagery. It is not necessary to become ignorant to increase 
our happiness. The highway of civilization leads to the light. 
The time will come when the human race will be truly en- 
lightened, when labor will receive its due reward, when the 
last institution begotten of ignorance and savagery will disap- 
pear. The time will come when the whole world will say that 
the love of man for woman, of woman for man, of mother for 
child, is the highest, the noblest, the purest, of which the heart 
is capable. 

Love, human love, love of men and women, love of mothers 



TOLSTOI AND ** THE KREUTZER SONATA. ^^ 

« 

fathers, and babes, is the perpetual and beneficent force. Not 
the love of phantoms, the love that builds cathedrals and dun- 
geons, that trembles and prays, that kneels and curses ; but 
the real love, the love that felled the forests, navigated the 
seas, subdued the earth, explored continents, built count- 
less homes, and founded nations — the love that kindled the 
creative flame and wrought the miracles of art, that gave us all 
there is of music, from the cradle-song that gives to infancy its 
smiling sleep to the great symphony that bears the soul away' 
with wings of fire — the real love, mother of every virtue and of 
every joy. 

September^ i8go. 



5. ^-aW -El-DITIOH. 3^ ST Pv5Bl-.lS^filD1 

jpt, S^OJ'^ l^istopi/* of the JS^ble: 

Being an account of the formation and development of the Canon ^ by 
BRONSON C. KKEIvER. 

Price, Cloth, 75 cents. Paper, 50 cents. Postage paid. 

This Book should be read by every Clergyman^ Layman^ Scholar and Liberal. 

Everybody knows that the contents of the Bible were voted upon by different 
councils of the church ; that books were included in the early centuries which 
are no longer regarded as a part of the sacred scriptures ; that many of the 
books now in the Bible were for centuries not a part of it ; and that bishops, and 
synods, and councils labored long to agree upon what books should be con- 
sidered canonical and what should not be. But the general knowledge has been 
indefinite. Few people are aware, for example, that the book of Revelation 
w^as for 1500 years rejected by the Eastern branch of the Christian church, and 
was voted into the Bible by that branch at a council held in Jerusalem in 1672. 
The aim of Mr. Keeler's book is to go over this entire ground from the beginning 
of the Christian era to the present time, and to furnish all the facts concerning 
the formation and development of the Bible canon, giving briefly but succinctly 
the views of each bishop and the action of every council having any influence 
on the contents of the sacred volume. Mr. Keeler does not deal in opinions. He 
simply states facts, and gives a reference for each fact to the early Christian 
fathers and other recognized authorities ; and it is believed that his book 
throws much light on a hitherto obscured department of religious history. 

"I have read Mr. Keeler's book with great pleasure and profit. He gives, in 
my opinion, a clear and intelligent account of the growth of the bible. He 
shows why books were received as inspired, and why they were rejected. He 
does not deal in opinions, but in facts ; and for the correctness of his facts, he 
refers to the highest authorities. He has shown exactly who the Christian 
fathers were, and the weight that their evidence is entitled to. The first cen- 
turies of Christianity are filled with shadow ; most histories of that period 
simply tell us what did not happen, and even the statements of what did not 
happe^n are contradictory. The falsehoods do not agree. Mr. Keeler must have 
spent a great deal of time in the examination of a vast number of volumes, and 
the amount of information contained in his book could not be collected in years. 
Every minister, every college professor, and every man who really wishes to 
know something about the origin and growth of the bible, should read this 

book."— R. G. INGERSOLL. 

To C. P. Farrell, Esq.— Often have I wished that some writer, who had a 
learned head and a lucid pen, would give us a brief yet comprehensive account 
of the Books of the Bible — how we came by them — when the world first got 
them — and what were the qualities, characters and pretensions of those who 
first imposed them upon credulous and superstitious believers. Often have I 
wished that if such a book were written, some publisher, having the ear of the 
Free Thought world, would issue it. ■ Great was my surprise and pleasure when 
I saw at Washington, Bronson Keeler's '^ Short History of the Bible^'' we have, 
and the marvellous number of suppressed Scriptures — all Christian, all curi- 
ous, all instructive — most of them wiser, all equally authentic, and all believed 
to be equally divine by those who had better means of judging them than we 
have. AH who are Christian — all who think they ought to be — and all who 
are not — should read Mr. Keeler's " Short," masterly and wise book.— GEORGE 
Jacob Holyoake, London, Englajid. 

The New York Sun, (Sunday, Oct. 9, 1881, in a review occupying four and one^ 
quarter columns) : ''On what questionable ground some writings were admitted 
and others excluded from the Christian scriptures is briefly and effectively set 
forth in a monograph entitled M Short History of the Bible,'' by Bronson C. 
Keeler. The writer of this striking essay; has not drawn his materials from the 
German rationalists, but bases his assertions on the statements of Christian his- 
torians and commentators, especially on the writings of the Christian fathers 
and the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius, and, among modern works, on 
Milman's ''History of Latin Christianity,'' and the disquisitions of Wescott, 
Davidson, Lange and Schaff. We trust that no one who has been led by the 
appearance of the revised version to ponder the origin and history of the sacred 
writings will fail to examine for himself Mr. Keeler's admirable monograph." 

Address C. P. FARRELL, Publisher, New York. 



A Grand Book : as interesting and entertaining as any novel / 



INGERSOLL'S 

Intef Views on lalfnage 

These Interviews were called out in answer to a series of 
theological discourses by Mr. Talmage. Three of them were 
originally given to a reporter of the daily press, but were after- 
wards revised and enlarged and three others added. The three 
newspaper reports being immediately pirated by so-called enter- 
prising but unprincipled publishers, were put upon the market in 
flimsy paper covers and heralded as the genuine *' IngersoU In- 
terviews." It is sufficient to say that in no other shape than the 
present complete volume are these " Interviews " to be had in 
their accurate and authorized entirety. 

As to the subject-matter it is essentially polemical, although 
not bitterly so. The foolish as well as serious phases of theo> 
logical ignorance and assumption are exposed to merited ridicule, 
and the weapons of good-natured wit and sarcasm are employed 
to laugh and shame religious superstition and arrogance out of 
court. In the '' Talmagian Catechism " especially, which sums 
up the six interviews, are shafts of wit and satire as keen and 
polished as ever sped from human brain. They go straight to the 
mark, and remind one of Voltaire's pointed though not poisoned 
arrows aimed at the priestly pretensions of his day. In the 
graver and more serious statements and arguments, the facts and 
figures are splendidly marshalled and bear down with resistless 
form upon the theological foe, breaking his ranks and scattering 
his forces like chaff before a gale. 

There is not in literature another such book. . It is i free- 
thought library in itself, and especially timely just now when 
bibles and creeds are being overhauled and "revision and divis> 
ion are in the air." No collection of Mr. Ingersoll's books is 
complete that does not include this in some respects his most 
remarkable work. 

A handsome 8°, 443 pages, gilt top, beveled edges, good paper, 
bold type, $2.00. From same plates, plain cloth, $1.25. Paper, 
50c. Sent post-paid upon receipt of price. 

C. P. FARRELL, Publisher, New York. 



AROUTs/EBNT 

BY 

Robert G. Ingersoll 

TRIAL OK C. B. RKYNOLD'S 

KOR 

" 'blasphemy, " 

Arr N10RRI3T0WM, INTEW JERSEY. 



Stenographic ally reported^ and revised by the Author. 



Handsome 8vo, BQ^ pp., beautiful type, fine paper^ 
Price, cloth, SOcts. ; paper cover, 25 cts. 



In this Argument Mr. Ingersoll again shows his great 
forensic powers. All his heart and brain are in it. It is one 
of his greatest productions. It is in his chosen field of intel- 
le6lual combat, and we see him as the splendid champion of 
human liberty and the rights of man. His love of freedom and 
justice, hatred of tyranny and chains, sympathy for the op- 
pressed, misguided and enthralled, his courage and candor, 
have in this Argument full scope of expression, and he makes 
grand use of the opportunity. Such a flood of light — of 
eloquence, legal learning, logic, pathos, poetry and patriotism 
is not often poured out in a Court of Justice. 

The many calls for this Argument in complete and accurate 
shape have led to this publication, as revised by Mr. Inger- 
soll himself. All other pubHcations are the merest fiftions — 
reprints from meagre and misleading newspaper references. 

Lawyers and advocates will find this the model of an address 
to a jury ; statesmen and politicians a clear exposition of Con- 
stitutional rights and powers ; and intelligent, patriotic and free 
men and women everywhere, a Magna Charta of their rights, 

Addrsss 0, P. FAEEELL, Publisher, 220 Madison Ave., New York. 



LIBERTY IN LITERATURE. 

Testimonial to Walt "Whitman. 

By Robt. G. Ingersoll. 
An Address Delivered in Philadelphia, Oct. 21, 1890. 

With Portrait of Whitman. 

**Z<?/ us put wreaths on the brows of the living.''^ 
Paper, 25c. Cloth, 50c. 

BIBLK IVEYTHS, 

AND THEIR PARALLELS IN OTHER RELIGIONS: 

BEING A 

Comparison of the Old Testament Myths and Miracles with those 
of Heathen IVations of Antiquity, 

CONSIDERING ALSO THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING. 

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Col. ROBERT G. INGERSOLL says: "This work demonstrates the fact that 
there is nothing new or original in Christianity ; that its maxims, miracles, and mistakes, its 
doctrines, sacraments, and ceremonies, were all borrowed ; that its virgin mothers, miracu- 
lous babes, courier-stars, crucifixions, resurrections, and ascensions, were familiar things 
hundreds of years before the founder of Christianity was born. It shows that all the ma- 
chinery of the supernatural has been in active operation for countless generations ; that all the 
nations of antiquity had about the same religious experience, and substantially agreed as to 
the correctness of about the same mistakes. Catholicism administered on the estate of 
Paganism, and appropriated most of the property to its own use. Christianity furnished new 
steam for an old engine. Fables, like most other things, wear out and have to be patched, 
gilded, or replaced. 

"The author of Bible Myths has su cceeded in showing that our bible is net the great 
central fire giving light to the world, but a collection of candles and tapers and sparks bor- 
rowed by the ' chosen people ' from those whom Jehovah, according to the scriptures, had 
left in the darkness of nature." 

Fourth Edition, Large 8to, 014 pages. Cloth, cut or uncuty.$2.50. 
Half Morocco, marbled edges or gilt top, $5. 

THE FREETHINKERS' PICTORIAL 
TEXT-BOOK. 

Showing the Absurdity and Untruthfulness of tho. Church'' s Claims to be a 

Divine and Beneficent Institution^ and Revealing the 

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OISE HimDRED AND EIGHTY-FIYE FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. 

with copious CITATIONS OF FACTS, HISTORY, STATISTICS and OPINIONS 
OF SCHOLARS TO MAINTAIN THE ARGUMENT OF THE ARTIST. 

DESIGNS BY WATSON HESTON, WITH PORTRAIT OF THE DESIGNER. 

400 pages, 9x12 in., illuminated covers, $2; silk cloth, ink and gold side stamps, $2. 50 

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400 Years OF 
Freethought. 

By SAMUEL PORTER PUTNAM. 

Large Oct.ivo, 1165 pages, Gilt Sides and Back, Marbled 
Edges, Price, $5. 

141 Full-page Half-tone Portraits of the Most Eminent Free- 

thinkers and Philosophers, Living and Dead, of 

the Past Four Hundred Years, 



The great work of Mr. S. P. Putnam, "- Four Hundred Years of Free- 
thought," is DOW ready for delivery, and all of the original subscribers having 
been supplied, new orders will be promptly filled. 

Every phase of Progress and development— intellectual, moral, literary, 
social, industrial, and political — has been presented, and this development is 
shown in orderly sequence in such a manner as to give the best picture possi- 
ble of human evolution. This book is in two parts — the first part dealing with 
Freethought as an influence and as a power manifesting itself sporadically, as 
might be said, in all departments of life and in all portions of the civilized world. 
The second part shows how this spirit or power has become organized in 
Europe and America; gives the history of its struggles and accomplisments, 
together with the lives of the men and women who have taken part in the 
movement. It is all deeply interesting and most thoroughly instructive It 
must do much in the way of uniting now-living Freethinkers, and it will 
preserve imperishably the story of the Freethinkers of the past who so nobly 
devoted their lives to the service of mankind. No other work of the kind has 
ever been attempted. 

Colonel Ingersoll says of it: 

*'New York, Nov. 4, 1894. 

"Dear Putnam: Well, I have read the ''Four Hundred Years of Free- 
thought." It is a book that every Freethinker ought to have, and hat every 
child of superstition ought to read. Every clergyman should study its pages, so 
that hereafter he can teil the truth about the mental pioneers of our race. 

'' I forgive you tor having given me too great credit, for having multi- 
plied and exaggerated my virtues and ignored my defects. 

"The book is written with great clearness — with great force and beauty. 
Many of the pages are poems, and these poems are filled with philosophy. 
Every line is warm, alive, and throbbing with enthusiasm— with love for the 
right and for man. 

'' You have done a great service to a sacred cause, and I thank you with 
all my heart. Yours always, R. G. INGERSOLL." 

Price, $5. Address C. P. FARRELL, New York. ' 



Liberal 




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Ttie greatest works of the noblest minds." 




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2 Catalogue of Liberal Classics. 

A Few Days in Athens. ByPrancesWnght. New Edition. Every, 
body who knows the value of this book will read it. One of the master- 
pieces of Freethought Cloth, 75 cts. 

Age of Reason. Being an investigation of True and Fabulous Theol- 
ogy. A new and unabridged edition. For nearly one hundred years the 
clergy have been vainly trying to answer this book Paper 25c.; cloth 50c. 

Apocryphal New Testament. Being all the Gospels, Epistles, 
and other pieces now extant, attributed in the first four centuries to Jesus 
Christ, his Apostles, and their companions, and not included in the New 
Testament by its compilers Cloth, $1.50 

Astro-Theological Lectures. Allegorical Meaning of the Bible. 
Belief not the Safe Side \ The Resurrection of Lazarus ; The Unjust Stew- 
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Wilderness ; Ahab, or the Lying Spirit ; The Fall of Man ; Noah ; Abraham : 
Sarah ; Melchisedec ; The Lord ; Moses, The Twelve Patriarchs ; Who is the 
Lord? Exodus; Aaron; Miriam. By Rev. Robt. Taylor..... Cloth, $1.50 

BACON'S Christian Paradoxes, or the characters of a 
Believing Christian in Paradoxes and Seeming Contradictions. WithPor 
trait. Preface by Peter Eckler = Paper. 10 cts. 

Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions. 

Being a comparison of the Old and New Testament Myths and Miracles with 

those of Heathen Nations of Antiquit}^ Large 8vo, 614 pp Cloth $2.50, 

half morocco.. SsToo 

Prof. Max MuUer says—" All truth is safe, and nothing else is safe ; and he who keeps back 
the tmth, or withholds it from men, from motives of expediency, is either a coward or a 
criminal, or both. He who knows only one religion, knows none." 
Bev. M. J. Savage, (Boston.) says—" To me. the volume is worth twenty times its cost." 
" The author of ' Bible Myths ' has succeeded in showing that our bible is not the great 
central fire, giving light to the world, but a collection of candles and tapers and sparks bor- 
rowed by the ' chosen people ' from those whom Jehovah, according to the Scriptures, had 
left in the darkness of nature."— R. G. Ingersoll. 

Biichner's Force and Matter, or principles of the natu- 
ral Order of the Universe. With a system of Morality based thereon. 
A scientific work of great ability and merit. Post 8vo, 414 pp., with Portrait, 
Cloth , $1.00 

Man in the Past, Present, and Future, it de- 
scribes Man as "a being" not put upon the earth accidentally b^'- an arbi- 
trary act, btit produced in harmonv with the earth's nature, and belong-ing- 
to it as do the flowers and fruits to the tree which bears them.". ...Cloth, $1.00 

Cobbett's, (Wm.) English Grammar. Edited by Robert 

Waters, i vol., i2mo. Cloth, $1.00 

** Of all the books on English grammar that I have met with, Cobbett's seems to me the 
best, and. indeed, the only one to be used with advantage in teachino Enalish. His style is a 
model of correctness, of clearness, and of strength. He wrote English with unconscious 
ease."— Richard Grant White. 

"The best English grammar extant for self-instruction."— 5c?ioo2 Board C5^ront<!2e. 

" As interesting as a story-book."— B^asZii^. 

*' The only amusing grammar in the world."— Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer. 

"Written with vigor, energy, and courage, joined to a force of understanding, a degree of 
logical power, and force of expression which has rarely been equalled "—-Sa^urdai/ Review. 

Common Sense, a Revolutionary pamphlet addressed to the inhab- 
itants of America in 1776, with an explanatorv notice by an Eng-lish author 
Paine's first and most important political work Paper, 15 cts 

Comte ' Aus:uste\ The Positive Philosophy of. Trans- 
lated by Harriet Martineau. With portrait and fac-simile of Autograph. 
One volume, royal 8vo, 838 pp. g-ilt top and side stamp Cloth, $4.00 

"A work of nro found science, and conspicuous for the highest attributes of Intellectual 
power.*'— 5:ir David Brewster. 

" Comte is the Bacon of the nineteenth centmr. Like Bacon he fully sees the cause of our 
intellectual anarchy, and also sees the cure. We have no hesitation in recoiding our con- 
viction that the Positive Philosophy is the greatest work of our century."— LetPes's Biograph' 
ieal History of Phifosophy. 

"A work which T hold to be far the greatest yet produced in the Philosophy of the 
Sci«nee8,"— JtfiK's System of Logi<i. 

Demonstrated Facte, not Visionary Revelations. 



Catalogue of Liberal Classics. j 

Conventional Lies of our Civilization. Religious, Mon. 

archical and Aristocratic, Political, Economic, Matrimonial and Miscella- 
neous Lies. By Max Nordau. Cheap edition 50 cts. 

Creed of Christendom. By W. R. Greg, its Foundation con- 
trasted with its Superstructure. Complete in i vol., lamo, 399 pp $1.50 

"No Candid reader of the 'Creed of Christendom' can close the book with- 
out the secret acknowledgment that it is a model of honest investigation and 
clear exposition ; that it is conceived in the true spirit of serious and faithful 
research ; and that whatever the author wants of being an ecclesiastical Chris- 
tian, is plainly not essential to the noble guidance of life, and the devout ear- 
nestness of the dL^QoXion^.'''' —West77tinster Review. 

Crisis. 16 numbers. Written during the darkest hours of the American 
Revolution "in the the times that tried men's souls." By Thomas Paine. 
Paper, 25 cts cloth 50 cts". 

D*Holbach (Baron.) Letters to Eugenia against 

RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE Cloth, $1.00 

The System of Nature; or, Laws of the Moral and Physical 

World. By Baron D'Holbach. ." One of the greatest books ever written. 
It never was and never will be answered."— R. G. Ingersoll $2.00 

Devil's Pulpit (The.) Astro-Theological Sermons. With a sketch of 
the Author's life, containing sermons on the following subjects : The Star of 
Bethlehem, John the Baptist, Raising the Devil, The Unjust Judge, Virgo 
Paritura, St. Peter, Judas Iscariot Vindicated, St. Thomas, St. James, and 
St. John, the Sons of Thunder, the Crucifixion of Christ, the Cup of Salva- 
tion, Lectures on Free Masonry, the Holy Ghost, St. Philip, St. Matthew, The 
Redeemer. By Rev. Robt. Taylor Cloth, $1.50 

Dickens' Sunday Under Three Heads, as it is; as sab- 
bath bills would make it ; and as it might be made. By Charles Dickens. 
Illustrated by Phiz. Portrait. Preface by Peter Eckler... Paper 25 c. ; cloth, 500. 

DiegesiS (The.) Being a Discovery of the Origin, Evidences, and early 
History of Christianitv, never yet before or elsewhere so fully and faithfully 
set forth. By Rev. Robert Taylor. This v/ork was written by Mr. Taylor 
while serving a term in Oakham jail, England ; where he was imprisoned 
for blasphemy. It contains 440 pages, octavo, and is considered unanswera- 
ble as to arguments or facts Cloth, $2.cx3 

DUpUiS (C. F.) Origin of all Religious Worship. (Synopsis of the 
Great Work), with Zodiac of Denderah. 8vo, 443 pp $2.00 

Dynamic Theory of Life and Mind. An attempt to show 

that all Organic Beings are both Constructed and Operated by the Dynamic 
Agencies of their respective Environments. By James B. Alexander. Over 
400 illustrations, 87 chapters, 1,067 pages, and a 3-column index of 11 pages. 
This work endeavors to embrace the field covered by thousands of books, such 
as those of the '' Humboldt Library of Science," the '' International Scientific 
Series," etc., by bringing together, in simple and direct form, with proper 
correspondence between them, all of the known factors contributing toward 
the origin and evolution of organic beings. Do you wish to be well in- 
formed ? Then read a chapter or verse daily from this Bible of Science! 
It is entertaining as well as enlightening Cloth, $2.75 

English Grammar. Cobbett^s, (Wm.) Edited by Robert Waters. 
I vol., i2mo Cloth, $1.00 

" Of all the books on English grammar that I have met with, Cobbett's seems to me the 
best, and, indeed, the only one to he used with advantage in teachinp English. His style is a 
model of correctness, of clearness, and of strength. He wrote English with unconscious 
ease."— BicTiard Grant White, 

".The best English grammar extant for self-instruction*"— >Sc^ool Board Chronicle, 

"As interesting as a Btory -hook,"— Hazlitt, 

" The only amusing grammar in the world.."— Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer. 

" Written with vigor, energy and courage, joined to a force of understanding, a degree o 
logical power, and force of expression which has rarely been equalled,"— Saturday Eeview.', 

Knowledgre grives Power, Ignorance breeds Slavery. 



4 Catalogue of Liberal Classics, 

Fawcett^s Agnosticism, and other essays, with a Pro- 
logue by Robert G. Ingersoll. One volume, i2mo, 277 pp Cloth, 75 cts. 

Father Tom and the Pope; or, a Night at the Vatican. 

Written probably by Sir Samuel Ferguson. From Blackwood's Edingburgh 
Magazine. This is a humorous account of a rolicksome visit to the Pope of 
Rome by Father Tom, an Irish priest, armed with a super-abundance of Irish 
wit, two imperial quart bottles of Irish ^^ putteen^'^ and an Irish recipe 
"for conwhounding the same. "What's that?" says the Pope. "Put 
in the sperits first," says his Riv'rence ; "and then put in the sugar; and 
remember, every dhrop of wather you put in after that, spoils the punch." 
" Glory be to God ! " says the Pope, not minding a w6rd Father Tom was 
saying. " Glory be to God !" says he, smacking his lips. " I never knewn 
what dhrink was afore," says he. " It bates the Lachymalchrystal out ov 
the face ! " says he—" it's Necthar itself, it is, so it is ! " says he, wiping his 
epistolical mouth wid the cuff ov his coat Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

Force and Matter; or, principles of the natural 

ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE, with a System of Morality based thereon. 
By Prof. Ludwig Biichner, M.D. A scientific and rationalistic work of great 
merit and ability. Translated from the 15th German Edition, revised and 
enlarged by the author, and reprinted from the fourth English edition. One 
volume, post 8vo, 414 pp., with portrait Vellum cloth, $1.00; half calf, $2 

Four Hundred Years of Freethought. By samuei p, 

Putnam. The Most Magnificent Work Ever Published by the Freethought 
Press. The object of this work is to present the Course of Freethought 
throughout the Civilized World for the last Four Centuries, from the time 
of Columbus and Bruno to the time of Ingersoll. It is a radical Historic 
Record of the Greatest Developments of the Human Race. It reveals Free- 
thought as an Intellectual, Moral, Literary, Social, Industrial and Political 
Movement. It shows what Freethought is in itself and how manifold are its 
influences, and with what hope and promise we can hail its future triumph. 
Four Hundred Years of Freethought embraces the most Illustrious Pages 
of Human History, adorned with the brightest Genius, radiant with the most 
splendid Poetry, rich with the greatest Inventions and Discoveries, and en- 
nobled with Freedom's most shining advance. Nothing can be more inter- 
esting, more inspiring to the Pioneer Workers of to-day — to those who are 
still in the van for Human Rights and Progress. The struggle is not ended 
and what is already won must be carefully guarded. Eternal vigilance is the 
price of liberty ; and from the Past we must ever learn Great Lessons for the 
Future. Only one style of binding — the best $5.00 

GARDENER (HELEN H.) Men, Women, and 
GODS. Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 

Ghosts and Other Lectures S Liberty of Man, woman and 
Child ; Declaration of Independence ; Farming in Illinois ; Grant Banquet ; 
Rev. Alex. Clark ; etc. By R. G. Ingersoll Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.25 

Ghosts, Devils, Angels and Sun Gods, a series of essays 

agamst Superstition. By E. C. Kenney Paper, 25 cts- 

Gibbon's History of Christianity, with Preface, Life of 

Gibbon, and Notes by Peter Eckler ; also variorum Notes by Guizot, Wenck, 
Millman, etc. Portrait of Gibbon and many engravings of mythological 
divinities. Crown 8vo, 864 pp Cloth, $2.00 ; half calf , $4.00 

Great Ingersoll Controversy, containing an eloquent Christ- 
mas Sermon by Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, and various protests by eminent 
Christian divines. 213 pp Paper, 25 cts. 

For Complete Description of Thomas Paine's Works, see 
pages 9, 1 O, and 1 1 . 



Catalogue of Liberal Classics. ^ 

Goodloe'S Birth of the Republic, compiled frgm the Na- 
tional and Colonial Histories and Historical Collections, from the American 
Archives, from Memoirs and from the Journals and Proceedings of the 
British Parliament. Containing the Resolutions, Declarations and Ad- 
dresses adopted by the Continental Congress, the Provincial Congresses, 
Conventions and Assemblies, of the County and Tov/n Meetings, and the 
Committees of Safety, in all the Colonies, from the year 1765 to 1776, to 
which is added the Articles of Confederation, a history of the formation and 
adoption of the Constitution, the election of President Washington, his In- 
auguration, April 30, 1789, a copy of the Constitution, and Washington's 
Inaugural Speech. i2mo, 400 pp Cloth, $1.00 

Haecke! (Ernest.) Visit to Ceylon, with Portrait, and Map 

of India and Ceylon. " Thsse letters constitute one of the most charming 
books of travel' ever published, quite worthy of being placed by the side of 
Darwin's 'Voyage of the Beagle ' '' Post Svo, 348 pp Cloth, $1.00 

Half Hours with some Celebrated Freethinkers. 

Thomas Hobbs, Lord Bolmbroke, Condorcet, Spinoza, Anthony Collins, 
Des Cartes, M. de Voltaire, John Toland, Comte de Volney, Charles Blount^ 
Percy Bj'sshe Shelley, Helvetius, Frances Wright, Zeno, Epicurus, Matthew 
Tindal, David Hume, Dr. Thomas Burnet, Thomas Paine, Baptiste de 
Mirabaud, Baron de Holbach, Robert Taylor, Joseph Barker. By. "Icono- 
clast," Collins, and Watts..... Cloth, 75 cts 

History of a False Religion (Btilwer), & Origin of 

EVIL (BROUGHAxM). Preface by Peter Eckler. . .Paper, 25 c; cloth, 50 c. 

History of Christianity, comprising all that relates to the Christian 
religion in 1 he History of the Decline and Fall of the Ro7nan Empire, and, 
also, a Vindication (never before published in this country) of "some pas- 
sages in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters," by Edward Gibbon, Esq. 
With a Preface, Life of the Author, and Notes by Peter Eckler; also, 
Variorum Notes by Guizot, V/enck, Millman, "An English Churchman," 
and other scholars. "This important work contains Gibbon's complete 
7"//^(?/^^/*<:^/ writings, separate from his historical and miscellaneous works, 
showing zw/^«, where and/z^zt; Christianity originated ; who were its founders ; 
and what were the sentiments, character, manners, numbers and condition of 
the primitive Christians." i vol., post Svo, 864 pages, with Portrait of Gibbon 
and numerous Engravings of mythological divinities. 864 pp. , crown 8vo. 
Ex. vellum cloth, $2.00 Half calf, $3.00 

Horae Sabbaticae; Oran Attempt to correct Certain Sup rstitious 
and Vulgar Errors Respecting the Sabbath. By Godfrey Higgins. Author 
of Celtic Druids ; Apology for Mahomet the Illustrious ; Ajiacalypsts^ or an 
Inquiry into the Origin of Lajiguages^ Nations, and Religions. In Horce 
Sabbatic(2 the Christian Sabbath, or the Sunday is shown, in the words of 
our learned author, " to be a hu7?ia7z, not a divine institution — a festival, not 
a day of humiliation — to be kept by all consistent Christians with joy and 
gladness, like Christmas Day and Easter Sunday, and not like Ash Wednes- 
day and Good Friday." Preface by Peter Eckler. Post 8vo., 81 pages. 
Paper, 25 cts Extra vellum cloth, 50 cts, 

InGERSOLLCROB'T G.) Gods& other Lectures. 

I Comprising the Gods, Humboldt, Thomas Paine, Individuality, Heretics and 
Heresies Paper, 50c.; cloth, $1.00 

Ghosts and other Lectures, including The Ghosts, Lib- 
erty of Man, Woman, and Child ; The Declaration of Independence, About 
Farming in Illinois, Speech nominating James G. Blaine for Presldencv in 
1876, The Grant Banquet, A Tribute to Rev. Alex. Clark, The Past Rises before 
Me Like a Dream, and A Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll.... Paper, 50c.; cloth, $1.00 

Some Mistakes of Moses* 27opp Paper, 5oc.; cicth,$i.co 

Interviews on Talmage. Being six interviews with the 

Famous Orator on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage of Brooklyn, 
to which is added a Talmagian Catechism Paper, 50c.; cloth, fl.OO 

These Works are not for a day, but for all Time, 



6 Catalogue of Liberal Classics, 

IngersoIKR.G.) What Must we do to be Saved? 

Analyzes the so-called gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and de- 
votes a chapter each to the Catholics, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyte- 
rians, Evangelical Alliance, and answers the question of the Christians as to 
what he proposes instead of Christianity— the religion of sword and flame 
Paper 25 cents 

Blasphemy. Argument byR. G. Ingersoll in the Trial of C. B. 

Reynolds, at Morristown, N. J Paper, 26c.; cloth, 50c 



— — Prose- Poems and Selections. Fifth edition, enlarged 

and revised. A handsome quarto, containing 383 pages. This is, beyond ques- 
tion, the cheapest and most elegant volume in Liberal literature. Its mechan- 
ical finish is worthy of its intrinsic excellence. No expense has been spared to 
make it the thing of beauty it is. The type is large and clear, the paper heavy, 
highly calendered, and richly tinted, the presswork faultless, and the binding 
as perfect as the best materials and skill can make it. 

As to the contents, it is enough to say that they include all of the choicest utterances 
of the greatest writer on the topics treated that has ever lived. 

Those who have not the good fortune to own all of Mr. Ingersoll's published works, 
will have in this book of selections many bright samples of his lofty thought, his 
matchless eloquence, his wonderful imagery, and his epigrammatic and poetic 
power. The collection includes all of the "Tributes " that have become famous 
in literature— notably those to his brother E. C. Ingersoll, Lincoln, Grant, 
Beecher, Conklin, Courtlandt M. Palmer, Mary Fiske, Elizur Wright: his peer- 
less monographs on " The Vision of War,*' Love, ^Liberty, Art and Morality, 
Science, Nature, The Imagination, Decoration Day Oration, What is Poetry. 
Music of Wagner, Origin and Destiny, *' Leaves of Grass," and on the great 
heroes of intellectual Liberty. Besides these there are innumerable gems taken 
here and there from the orations, speeches, arguments, toasts, lectures, letters 
interviews, and day by day conversations of the author. 

The book is designed for, and will be accepted by, admiring friends as a rare per- 
sonal souvenir. To help it serve this purpose, a fine steel portrait, with auto- 
graph fac-simile, has been prepared especially for it. In the more elegant styles 
of binding it is eminently suited for presentation purposes, for any season or 
occasion. 

Pbioes.— In cloth, beveled boards, gilt edges, $2.50 ; in half morocco, gilt edges, |5} 
in half calf, mottled edges, library style, |4.50 ; in full Turkey morocco, gilt, 
exquisitely fine, |7.50; in full tree calf, highest possible finish. $9. 

Cheaper edition from same plates 31.50 

Volume 1. Ingersoll's Lectures. New edition. Only 

authorized. Large octavo, wide margins, good paper, large 

type. Contents : 
The Gods; Humboldt; Individuality: Thomas Paine ; Heretics and Heresies 
The Ghosts ; The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child ; The Centennial Oration, 
or Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1876. What I Know About Farming 
in Illinois ; Speech at Cincinnati in 1876, nominating James G. Blaine for the 
Presidency ; The Past Rises Before Me ; or, Vision of War, an extract from a 
Speech made at the Soldiers and Sailors Reunion at Indianapolis, Indiana, 
Sept. 21, 1876 ; A Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll ; The Grant Banquet ; Crimes 
Against Criminals ; Tribute to the Rev. Alexander Clarke. Some Mistakes of 
Moses ; What Must We Do to be Saved ? Blasphemy, Argument in the trial of 
C. B. Reynolds. Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by 
the Rev. T. DeWitt Talraage, D. D. ; to which is added a Talmagian Catechism, 
and four Prefaces, which contain some of Mr. Ingersoll's best and brightest 
sayings. 

Containing 1431 pages, bound in cloth, gold back and side stamps. 
Price, post-paid, $3.50. Half morocco, $5. Full sheep, law style, I5 
This is an entirely new edition and a handsomely proportioned book. 

Volume !!• will follow soon, containing all of his latest tenures 

Ingersoll's Liberty in Literature. Testimonial to wait 

Whitman. ''Let us put wreaths on the brows of the hvingr An address 
delivered in Philadelphia, Oct. 21, 1890, with Portrait of Whitman. Also 
contains the funeral oration Paper, 25 cents ; cloth, 50 cents 

Thomas Paine's Vindication, a Reply to the New York 

05sert?er's Attack upon the Author-hero of the Revolution, by R. G. Ingersoll 
Paper 16c*s. 

The Books that have Crushed Superstition. 



Catalogue of Liberal Classics, 7 

IngerSOil (R. G.) Orthodoxy, a Lecture ...paper, 10 cents. 

Limitations of Toleration, a Discussion between Col 

Robert G. Ingersoll, Hon. Frederick R. Coudert, and Ex-Govemor Stewart L 
Woodford = Paper, 10 cents 

Civil Rights Speech, with speech of Hon. Fred'k Douglass. 

Paper 10 cents. 

Crimes Against Criminals. Delivered before the New 

York state Bar Association, at Albany, N. Y., Jan. 21, 1890 Paper, 10 cts. 

' Lithograph of R. G. Ingersoli. 22x28 inch., heavy 

plate paper ...50 cts. 

Photographs of Col. Ingersoll. 18x24,15.00. impe- 

rial, 73^x13, fl.50. Cabinet, 25 cts. Ingerson and granddaughter Eva m., (a 
home picture,) 35 cts. 

— —About the Holy Bible. Just out. a new Lecture About 
the Holy Bible Paper, 25 cents. 

~ — Shakespeare. Ingersoll^s Great Lecture on Shakespeare, with a 

rare and handsome half-tone picture of the Kesselstadt Death Mask..Paper, 25c 

Lecture on Abraham Lincoln. Just out with a 

handsome, new portrait, Paper, 25 cents. 

Voltaire • ^^ Lecture. By Robert G. Ingersoll, with a Portrait of 

the great French Philosopher and Poet, never before published. .Paper, 25 c. 

The Great Ingersoll Controversy, containing the 

Famous Christmas Sermon, by Colonel R. G. Ingersoll, the indignant protests 
thereby evoked from ministers of various denominations, and Col. Ingersoii's 
replies to the same. A work of tremendous interest to every thinking man and 
woman Paper, 25 cts 

—Is Suicide a Sin? "something Brand New!" IngersoU's 

startling, brilUant and thrillingly eloquent letters, which created such a sen- 
sation when published in the New York World, together with the replies oi 
famous clergymen and writers, a verdict from a jury of eminent men of New 
York, Curious Facts About Suicides, celebrated essays and opinions of noted 
men and an astonishing and original chapter, Great Suicides of History ! 
Paper 25 cts. 

Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child. J^st out. 

A Lecture. Paper, 25 cts. 

Patriotic Addresses. By Coi. Robt. g. ingersoii, re- 
union ADDRESS, at Elmwood, Ills., Sept. 5, 1895, and DECORA- 
TION-DAY ORATION, in New York, May 30, 1882. Paper, 25 cts. 

Which Way ? a Lecture, by Robert G. Ing:erson. Paper, 25 cts 

' Some Reasons Why. a Lecture, by R. G. Ingersoll. Pa. 25c 

— Myth and Miracle, a Lecture, by R. G. Ingersoll. Pa. 25c 

The Foundations of Faith. ByR. g. ingersoii. Pa 25c 

The Field-lngersoll Discussion, faith or ag- 
nosticism. From the North American Review. Paper, 25 cts. 

Ingersoll-Gladstone Controversy on Christianity. 

From the North American Review. Paper, 25 cts. 

The Christian Religion. From the North American Re- 
view, by Robt. G. Ingersoll, and Judge Jeremiah S. Black. Pa. 25 cts. 

How to Reform Mankind, a Lecture. Paper, 25 cts. 

Essays and Criticisms. By Robert G. Ingersoll. Paper, 

25 cts.; cloth ^o cts. 

The Best Thoughts of the Greatest Minds. 



8 Catalogue of Liberal Classics, 

Koran, The Or, Alkoran of Mahomet. "The Bible of the East.'* 
Translated into English from the original Arabic, with Notes and a Prelim- 
inary Discourse by George Sale. With Maps and Plans. Demy, 8vo, gilt top.. $2 
Roxburgh Style $1.00 

Life of Jesus 5 By Ernest Renan Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 

Life of Thomas Paine. By the editor of the Natiofial, with Preface 
and Notes by Peter Eckler. Illustrated with views of the Old Paine Home- 
stead and Paine Monument at New Rochelle ; also, portraits of the most 
prominent of Paine's friends in Europe and America. As " a man is known 
by the company he keeps," these portraits of Paine's associates are in them- 
selves a sufficient refutation of the wicked libels against Paine that have so 
long disgraced sectarian literature. Crown 8vo... Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts. 

fVlAN IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FU- 

i 1 TURE. By Prof. Ludwig Biichner. It describes Man as "a being not 
put upon the earth accidentally by an arbitrary act, but produced in harmony 
with the earth's nature, and belonging to it as do the flowers and fruits to 
the tree which bears them." Cloth, $1.00 

Mahomet s His Birth, Character and Doctrine, 

BY EDWARD GIBBON, Esq. Gibbon's account of the Arabian legislator 
and prophet, is conceded to be historically correct in every particular, and 
so grand and perfect in every detail as to be practically beyond the reach of 
adverse criticism. Post 8vo. paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

Mahomet, The Illustrious, by Godfrey higgins, Esq. 

Perhaps no author has appeared who was better qualified for writing an 
honest Lt/e 0/ Mahomet — the Illustrious — than Godfrey Higgins, Esq., the 
author of the present work. His knowledge of the Oriental languages, 
his careful and methodical examination of all known authorities — his evident 
desire to state the exact truth, joined to the judicial character of his mind, 
eminently fitted him for the task, and he has produced a work that will 
prove of interest to both Mahometans and Christians. Preface by Peter 
Eckler. Post 8vo. paper, 25 cts. ; cloth 50 cts. 

Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. The work contains 

Horatius, a Lay made about the year of the city CCCLX ; The Battle of the 
Lake Regillus, a Lay sung at the Feast of Castor and Pollux on the Ides of 
Quintilis, in the year of the city CCCCLI ; Virginia ; fragments of a Lay sung 
in the Forum on the day whereon Lucius Lextius Sextinus Lateranus and 
Caius Licinius Calvus Stolo were elected Tribunes of the Commons the fifth 
time, in the year of the city CCCLXXXII ; The Prophecy of Capys ; a Lay 
sung at the Banquet in the Capitol, on the day whereon Manius Curius 
Dentatus, a second time Consul, triumphed over King Pyrrhus and the 
Tarentines, in the year of the city cccCLXXix ; Ivry, a Song of the Hugue- 
nots ; The Armada, a fragment. A beautiful gilt book, with portrait and 
115 exquisite outline illustrations, (original and from the antique), drawn on 
wood by George Scharf, Jr. 4to Cloth, extra gilt, $2.50 

Martyrdom of Man (The.) By Wlnwood Reade. This book is a 
very interestingly pictured synopsis of universal history, showing what the 
race has undergone — its martyrdom — in its rise to its present plane. It 
shows how war and religion have been oppressive factors m the struggle for 
liberty, and the last chapter, of some 150 pages, describes his intellectual 
struggle from the animal period of the earth to the present, adding an out- 
line of what the author conceives would be a religion of reason and love. 
Cloth $1.00 

Meslier's Superstition in All Ages, jean Mesiier was a 

Roman Catholic Priest who, after a pastoral service of thirty years in 
France, wholly abjured religious dogmas, and left this work as his last Will 
and Testament to his parishioners and to the world. Preface by Peter 

Eckler. 339 pp., portrait. Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 half calf, I3. 00 

. rpj^g same work in German Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 



Philosophy of Disenchantment. By e. e. saitus. 233 pages. 

Cloth. 75 cts 

These Books should be In every Thinker's Library. 



Works of Thomas Paine, 

Common Sense* a Revolutionary pamphlet addressed to t^e inhab- 
itants of America in 1776, with an explanatory notice by an English author, 
Paine's first and most important political work. Paper 15 cts. 

The Crisis. i6num.bers. Written during the darkest hours of the American 
Revolution "in the the times that tried men's souls." Paper, 30c.; cloth 50c. 

The Rights of Man, Being an answer to Burke's attack upon the 
French Revolution. A work almost without a peer. Paper, 30c.; cloth, 50c. 

The Age of Reason. Being an investigation of True and Fabulous 
Theology. A new and unabridged edition. For nearly one hundred years 
the clergy have been vainly trying to answer this book. Paper 25c. ; cloth 50c. 

Paine's Religious and Theological Works complete* 

Comprising the Age of Reason-- Kn Investigation of True and Fabulous 
Theology ; An Examination of the Prophecies of the coming of Jesus 
Christ ; The Books of Mark, Luke and John ; Contrary Doctrines in the 
New Testament between Matthew and Mark; An Essay on Dreams; 
Private Thoughts on a Future State; A Letter to the 'Hon. Thomas 
Erskine ; Religious Year of the Theophilanthropists ; Precise History 
of the Theophilanthropists ; A Discourse Delivered to the Societ^^ o'f 
Theophilanthropists at Paris ; A Letter to Camille Jordan ; Origin of Free- 
masonry ; The Names in the Book of Genesis ; Extract from a Reply 
to the Bishop of Llandafif ; The Book of Job; Sabbath or Sunday; Future 
State; Miracles; An Answer to a Fn'end on the Publication of the Age 
of Reason : Letters to Samuel Adams and Andrew A. Dean ; Remarks 
on Robert Hall's Sermons ; The word Religion ; Cain and Abel _; The 
Tower of Babel ; To Members of the Society' styling itself the Missionary 
Society; Religion of Dei_sm ; The Sabbath 'Day of Connecticut ; Ancient 
History; Bishop Moore; John Mason; Books of the New Testament ; Deism 
and the Writings of Thomas Paine, etc. The work has also a fine Portrait of 
Paine, as Deputy to the National Convention in France, and portraits of 
Samuel Adams, Thomas Erskine, Camille Jordan, Richard Watson, and 
other illustrations. One vol., post 8vo., 432 pages, paper 50 cts., cloth $1.00. 

Paine*s Principal Political Works, containing common 

Sense ; The Crisis, (16 numbers) , Letter to the Abbe Raynal ; Letter from 
Thomas Paine to General Washington ; Letter from General Washington to 
Thomas Paine; Rights of Man, parts land II.; Letter to the Abb6 Sieves. 
With portrait and illustrations. In one volume, 655 pages, price, cloth $1.60. 

Paine's Political Works complete, in two vols., containing 

over 500 pp. each, post 3vo, cloth, with portrait and illustrations. $1 00 per vol. 

Volume I. contains : Common Sense and the Epistle to the Quakers ; The 
Crisis, (the 16 Numbers Complete) ; A Letter to the Abbe Raynal ; Letter 
from Paine to Washington ; Letter from Washington to Paine ; Dissertation 
on Government, the Affairs of the Bank and Paper Money ; Prospects on the 
Rubicon; or, an Investigation into the Causes and Consequences of the Poli- 
tics to be agitated at the next Meeting of Parliament; Public Good, being an 
Examination into the claim of Virginia to the Western Territory', etc. 

Volume II. contains : Rights of Man in two Parts, (Part I. being an Answer 
to Burke's Attack on the French Revolution ; Part II. contains Principle and 
Practice) ; Letter to Abbe Siey^s ; To the Authors of the Republican] Letter 
Addressed to the Addresser's on the Late Proclamation ; betters to Lord 
Onslow; Dissertation on First Principles of Government; Letters to Mr. 
Secretary Dundas; Speech in the French National Convention; Reasons 
for Sparing the Life of Louis Capet; Letter to the People of France ; On the 
Propriety of Bringing Louis XVL to Trial ; Speech in the National Conven- 
tion on the Question, " Shall or shall not a Respite of the Sentence of Louis 
XVI. take place .>" To the People of France and the French Armies ; Decb>e 
and Fall of the English System of Finance ; Agrarian Justice, etc. 

Life of Thomas Paine. By the editor of the National with Preface 
and Notes by Peter Eckler. Illustrated with views of the Old Paine Home- 
stead and Paine Monument at New Rochelle ; also, portraits of the most 
prominent of Paine's friends in Europe and America. As "a man is known 
by the company he keeps," these portraits of Paine's associates are in them« 
selves a sufficient refutation of the wicked libels against Paine that have so 
long disgraced sectarian literature. Post 8vo, paper 50 cts.; cloth 75 cts. 

Paine's Vindication, a Reply to the New York Observer's attack 
upon the Author-hero of the Revolution, by R. G. Ingersoll. Paper, 15 cts. 



Paine's Complete Works. 

A Superb Edition ! 

THE RELIGIOUS AND THEOLOGICAL, THE 
POLITICAL, THE POETICAL, AND THE 
MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS of THOMAS 
PAINE, together with his BIOGRAPHY, by 
Thomas Clio Kickman, and the Editor of "The 
National." 



Five Beautiful, Illustrated volumes, boxed. Crown 8vo., brown vellum 
cloth, gilt leather titles, $5.00. 

This choice edition is printed on fine paper, from large, clear type, and is 
neatly and substantially bound. For accuracy and completeness this edition 
is not excelled by the editions sold at treble the price. 



Political Works of Thomas Paine, Complete, in two 

vols., containing over 500 pp. each, with portrait and many illustrations. 
Crown 8vo., brown vellum cloth, gilt leather titles, $1.00 per vol. 

Vol. I, contains: Common Sense and the Epistle to the Quakers: The 
Crisis, (the 16 Numbers Complete) ; A Letter to the Abb6 Raynal ; Letter 
from Paine to Washington ; Letter from Washington to Paine ; Dissertation 
on Government, the Affairs of the Bank and Paper Money ; Prospects on the 
Rubicon ; or, an Investigation into the Causes and Consequences of the Poli- 
tics to be agitated at the next Meeting of Parliament ; Public Good, being an 
Examination into the claim of Virginia to the Western Territory, etc. 

Vol. II. contains : Rights of Man in two Parts, (Part I. being an Answer 
to Burke's Attack on the French Revolution ; Part II. contains Principle and 
Practice) ; Letter to Abb6 Si^yds ; To the Authors of the Republican ; Letter 
Addressed to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation ; Letters to Lord 
Onslow ; Dissertation on First Principles of Government ; Letters to Mr. 
Secretary Dundas ; Speech in the French National Convention ; Reasons 
for Sparmg the Life 01 Louis Capet ; Letter to the People* of France ; On the 
Propriety of Bringing Louis XVI. to Trial : Speech in the National Conven- 
tion on the Question, '' Shall or shall not a Respite of the Sentence of Louis 
XVI. take place ?" To the People of France and the French Armies ; Decline 
and Fall of the English System of Finance ; Agrarian Justice, etc. 



Theological and Religious Works of Thos. Paine 

COMPLETE. Comprising the Age of Reason ~ an Investigation of True 
and Fabulous Theology; An Examination of the Prophecies of the coming of 
Jesus Christ ; The Books of Mark, Luke and John ; Contrary Doctrines in the 
New Testament between Matthew and Mark ; An Essay on Dreams ; 
Private Thoughts on a Future State ; A Letter to the Hon. Thomas 
Erskine- Religious Year of the Theophilanthropists ; Precise History 
of the Theophilanthropists; A Discourse Delivered to the Society of 
Theophilanthropists at Paris ; A Letter to Camille Jordan ; Origin of Free- 
masonry ; The Names in the Book of Genesis : Extract from a Reply 
to the Bishop of Llandaff ; The Book of Job; Sabbath or Sunday; Future 
State ; Miracles ; An Answer to a Friend on the Publication of the A^e 
of Reason; Letters to Samuel Adams and Andrew A. Dean; Remarks 
on Robert Hall's Sermons; The word Religion; Cain and Abel; The 
Tower of Babel ; To Members of the Society styling itself the Missionary 
Society ; Religion of Deism ; The Sabbath Day of Connecticut ; Ancient 
History ; Bishop Moore ; John Mason ; Books of the New Testament ; Deism 
and the Writings of Thomas Paine, etc. The work has also a fine Portrait of 
Paine, as Deputy to the National Convention in France, and portraits of 
Samuel Adams, Thomas Erskine, Camille Jordan, Richard Watson, and 
other illustrations. One vol.. Crown 8vo., brown vellum cloth, gilt leather 
title, 43a pages. Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00. 

This Library Is the Pride of every Thinker. 



Catalogue of Liberal Classics, ii 

Paine's Poetical and Miscellaneous Works com- 

PLETE. Containing Introduction to the first number of the Pennsylvania 
Magazine; The Snowdrop and Critic; The Pennsylvania Magazine; 
Liberty Tree ; The Death of General Wolfe ; Burning of Bachelors' Hall, 
1775; Contentment, or Confession; From the ''Castle in the Air" to the 
*' Little Corner of the World;" What is Love? Lines Extempore, July, 
i8o8 ; Patriotic Song ; Sons of Columbia ; Land of Love and Libertv ; 
Address to Lord Howe ; Korah, Dathan and Abiram ; The Monk and the 
Jew; Farmer Short's Dog, Porter ; ''Wise Men from the East;" A Long 
Nosed Friend ; Useful and Entertaining Hints ; A Fable of Alexander the 
Great; Cupid and Hymen; To Forgetfulness ; Life and Death of Lord 
Clive; Case of the Officers of Excise; Salary of the Officers of Excise, 
Evils Arising from Poverty ; Qualifications of Officers ; Petition to the 
Board of Excise ; Letter to Dr. Goldsmith ; To a Friend in Philadelphia ; 
On the Utility of Iron Bridges ; On the Construction of Iron Bridges; To 
the Congress of the United States ; To a Friend ; Anecdote of Lord Malms- 
bury ; To Thomas Clio Rickman ; Preface to General Lee's Memoirs ; To a 
Gentleman at New York ; The Yellow^ Fever ; Letter to a Friend ; Address 
and Declaration ; To Elihu Palmer ; Thomas Paine at Seventy ; Letters to 
George Washington ; Memorial of Thomas Paine to Mr. Monroe ; Letters to 
the Citizens of the United States; Of the Old and New Testament; Com- 
munication ; To the Editor of the Prospect ; Religious Intelligence ; Re- 
marks by Mr. Paine ; Address from Bordentown ; To the English People 
on the Invasion of England ; To the French Inhabitants of Louisiana ; To 
the Citizens of Pennsylvania on the Proposal for a Convention ; Of Consti- 
tutions, Governments, and Charters ; Remarks on the Political and Militarv 
Affairs of Europe ; Of the English Navy ; Remarks on Gov. Lewis's Speech 
to the Legislature at Albany ; Of Gunboats ; Ships of War, Gunboats, and 
Fortifications ; Remarks on Mr. Hale's Resolutions at Albany ; Letters to 
Morgan Lewis on the Prosecution of Thomas Farmer; On the Question, 
Will there be War? On Louisiana and Emmissaries ; A Challenge to the 
Federalists to Declare their Principles ; Liberty of the Press ; Of the Affairs 
of England ; To the People of New York ; Reply to Cheetham ; The Emis- 
sary CuUen or Carpenter ; Communication on CuUen ; Federalists Beginning 
to Reform ; To a Friend of Peace ; Reprimand to James Cheetham ; Cheet- 
ham and his Tory Paper; The Emissary Cheetham: To the Federal 
Faction; Memorial to Congress; To Congress. One volume, Crown 8 vo., 
brown vellum cloth, gilt leather title, $1.00. 

Biography of Thomas Paine, by thomas clio rickman 

the intimate and life-long friend of Paine, — who respected and honored the 
'* Author-Hero of the Revolution " for his brilliant talents and unchanging 
devotion to the cause of civil liberty and mental freedom, and who loved 
him for his sterling merits, his generous impulses, his unselfish character, 
and noble conduct. It was at the home of Mr. Rickman, in Upper Mary-le- 
Bone street, London, that Mr. Paine met and made the acquaintance of 
Mary Woolstonecraft, John Home Tooke, Dr. Priestly, Dr. Towers, Romney, 
the painter. Sharp, the engraver. Col. Oswald, and other celebrated Eng- 
lish reformers. To this biography is added 

The Life of Thomas Paine, by the editor of the National, y^Hh 
Preface and Notes by Peter Eckler. The work is Illustrated with views 
of the Old Paine Homestead and Paine Monument at New Rochelle ; with 
a fine portrait of Thomas Paine, engraved by Mr. Sharp from the portrait 
of Paine painted by Romney, which is endorsed by Mr. Rickman "as a 
true likeness ;" also, with a full page illustration of the handwriting and 
signature of Mr. Paine, copied from a letter Paine addressed to Rickman, 
dated New York, July 12, '06. 

The work also contains portraits of the most prominent of Paine's friends and 
acquaintances in Europe and America, among whom are the following : 
C. F. Volney; Thomas Clio Rickman ; Oliver Goldsmith; Joel Barlow; Dr. 
[oseph Priestley ; Benjamin Franklin; Mary Woolstonecraft; John Home 
Tooke ; Brissot ; Condorcet : Madame Roland ; James Monroe ; Danton ; 
Marat ; M. De La Fayette ; Thomas Jefferson ; Robespierre ; George Wash- 
ington, and Napoleon Bonaparte. A view is given of the Temple, (the 

■ dismal fortress in which Louis XVI. was confined previous to his exe- 
cution,) and also a view of the death scene of Marat, with a portrait of 
Charlotte Corday, his executioner. A portrait is also given of Kouget de 
Lisle, with a correct version in French of the Marseillaise Hymn, with the 
musical notes of the same, which, as Lamartine tells us, "rustled like a flag 
dipped in gore, still reeking in the battle plain : It made one tremble." 

One volume, Crown 8 vo., brown vellum cloth, gilt leather title, $1.00, 

The Liberal Classics should be In every Library, 



12 Catalogue of Liberal Classics. 

Profession of Faith of the Vicar of Savoy. By j. j. 

Rousseau. Also, A SEARCH FOR TRUTH, by Oiive Schreiner. Preface 
by Peter Eckler. Post 8vo, 128 pages, with Portrait, ...Paper 25 c. ; cloth, 50 c. 

RELIGIOUS and Theological Works of Paine 
Complete. One vol., post 8vo., 432 pp Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 

Reign of the Stoics. Their History, Religion, Philosophy, Maxims 
of Self-Control, Self-Culture, Benevolence, and Justice. By F. M. Holland. 
Price. $1.00 

Reasons for Unbelief, t>y LouIs Vlardot. Translated from the 
French. This volume is an analysis, an abstract, an epitome of the 
reasons given by the greatest vv^riters of all ages for disbelief in supernat- 
ural religions. The arguments are clear, concise, convincing and conclusive. 
They are founded on reason and science, and rise to the dignity of 
demonstrations. The book will prove a priceless treasure to all enquiring 

minds Paper, 25 cts. ; cloth, 50 cts. 

" It is a good book, and will do good.'* — Robert G. Ingersoll. 

Renan (Ernest) The ufe of jesus cioth, $i.oo 

English Conferences 75 cts. 

Rights of Man. parts I and II. Being an answer to Burke's attack 
upon the French Revolution. A work almost without a peer. Post Svo, 279 
pages Paper, 25c.; cloth, 50 cts. 

Rochefoucauld's Moral Maxims, containing 541 Maxims 

and Moral Sentences, by Francis, Duke of Rochefoucald ; together with 144 
Maxims and Reflections by Stanislaus, King of Poland. Also Maxims to live 
by, and Traits of Moral Courage in every-day life. i2mo, 186 pages, 
Cloth 75 cts . 

" As Rochefoucald his maxims drew 
From Nature,— I believe them true. 
They argue no corrupted mind 
In him— the fault is in mankind V— Swift. 

Rousseau (Jean Jacques.) The social contract, or principles of 
Political Law. Also, A Project for a Perpetual Peace. Preface by Peter Eckler. 
One vol., post Svo, 238 pages, with portrait Paper, 50 cts.; cloth, 75 cts. 

The writings of Rousseau, says Thomas Paine, in his Rights of Man^ contain 
" a loveliness of sentiment in favor of Liberty that excites respect and ele- 
vates the human faculties." 
He was the most directly revolutionary of all the speculative precursors. His 
writings produced that glow of enthusiastic feeling in France, which led to 
the all-important assistance rendered by that country to the American colo- 
nists in a struggle so momentous for mankind. It was from his writings 
that the Americans took the ideas and the phrases of their great Charter. 
It was his work more than that of any other one man, that France arose 
from the deadly decay which laid hold of her whole social and political sys- 
tem, and found that irresistible energy which warded off dissolution within, 
and partition from without."— John Morley. 

* He could be cooped up in garrets, laughed at as a maniac, left to starve like a 
wild beast in a cage,— but he could not be hindered from setting the world 
on fire."— Thomas Carlyle. 

— Profession of Faith of the Vicar of Savoy. 

By Jean Jacques Rousseau. Also, A Search for Truth, by Olive Schreiner 
Preface by Peter Eckler. Post Svo, 128 pp., with portrait. . . .Paper, 25 cts 
Vellum cloth 50 cts 

Ruins of Empires and the Law of Nature. By c. f 

Volney. With Portrait of Volney, Illustrations, and Map of the Astrolog- 
ical Heaven of theAncients. Also, Volney's Answer to Dr. Priestly, a Bio- 
graphical Notice by Count Daru, and an Explanation of the Zodiacal Signs 

and Constellations by Peter Eckler. 248 pp Cloth, 75 cts. ; paper, 50 cts. 

half calf ..$2.00 

Thoug^hts that Live In Words SubHme. 



Catalogue oj Liberal Classics, /J 

Romances, by M. de Voltaire, a new edition, profusely illus- 
trated. One volume, post 8vo, 480 pages, with Portrait and 82 Illustrations. 
Paper $1.00 ; extra vellum cloth, $1.50; half calf, $4.00 

•' I choose that a story should be founded on probability, and not always re- 
semble a dream. I desire to find nothing in it trivial or extravagant ; and I 
desire above all, that under the appearance of fable, there may appear some 
latent truth, obvious to the discerning eye, though it escape the observation 
of the vulgar."— Voltaire, 

Voltaire's satire was as keen and fine pointed as a rapier. — Magazine of Amer 
ica7i Hist07'y. 

A delightful reproduction, unique and refreshing.— i5'(?i-^^,»2 Commonwealth. 

S/VLTUS' Anatomy of Negation, intended to convey a 
tableau of anti-Theism from Kapila to Leconte de Lisle. i2mo, 218 pp. 
Cloth 75 cts. 

Short History of the Bible. Being a popular account of the 
. Formation and Development of the Canon. By Bronson C. Keeler. Con- 
tents : The Hebrew Xanon ; The New Testament ; The Early Controver- 
sies ; The Books at first not Considered Inspired ; Were the Fathers 
Competent ; The Fathers quoted as Scripture Books which are now called 
Apocryphal; The Heretics ; The Christian Canon. Paper, socts.; cloth, yscts. 

Social Contract ; Or principles of political law. aiso, 

A Project for a Perpetual Peace. By J. J. Rousseau, i vol., post 8vo, with 
Portrait. Preface by Peter Eckler. Paper, 50 cts.; extra vellum cloth, 75 cts. 

Sunday Under Three Heads. Asitis; asSabbathbiiiswouid 

make it ; and as it might be made. By Charles Dickens. Illustrated by 
Phiz, Portrait. Preface by Peter Eckler Paper, 25 cts. ; cloth, 50 cts. 

Superstition in All Ages. By jean xMesller. Jean Meslier was a 
Roman Catholic Priest who, after a pastoral service of thirty years in France, 
wholly abjured religious dogmas, and left this work as his last Will and 
Testament to his parishioners and to the world. Preface by Peter Eckler. 

339 pp. Portrait. Paper, 50 cts Cloth, $1.00 

The same work in German Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 

Talleyrand's Letter to Pope Pius VII. with a Memoir 

and Portrait of the Author, his Famous Maxims, and also an account of his 
Celebrated Visit to Voltaire. 136 pp Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

Talmud ^The.) Translated from the original by H. Polano, Professo'* 
of the Hebrew Language Cloth, $1.00 

Vindication of the Rights of Vii^oman. with strictures on 

Political and Moral Subjects. By Mary WoUstonecraft. New Edition, with 
an Introduction by Mrs. Henry Fawcett Cloth, $1.00 

Vindication of Thomas Paine, a Reply to the New York 

Observer's attack upon the Author-hero of the Revolution, by R. G. IngersoU. 
Paper 15 cts. 

Visit to Ceylon. By Ernst Haeckel, professor in the University of 
Jena. Author of The History of Creation^ History of the Evolution of Man. 
etc. With Portrait, and Map of India and Ceylon. Translated by Clara 
Bell. I vol., post 8vo., 348 pp , Extra vellum cloth, $1.00 

Volney*s Ruins of Empires and the Law of Na- 

TURE. With Illustrations, Portrait of Volney, and Map of the Astrological 
Heaven of the Ancients. Also, Volney's Answer to Dr. Priestley, a Biograph- 
ical Notice by Count Daru, and an Explanation of the Zodiacal Signs and 

Constellations by Peter Eckler. 248 pp Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts. 

Half calf $3-oo 

The Library of Liberal Classics are Admitted to be the 
Books of the 20th Century. 



14 Catalogue of Liberal Classics, 

Voltaire (M, de). Works. 

VoItaire^S Romances, a New Edition, Profusely illustrated. 

Contents : The White Bull ; a Satirical Romance. Zadig, or Fate ; an Oriental 
History. The Sage and the Atheist. The Princess of Babylon. The Man 
of Forty Crowns. The Huron ; or Pupil of Nature. Micromegas ; a Satire 
on Mankind. The World as it Goes. The Black and the White. Memnon 
the Philosopher. Andre Des Touches at Siam. Bababec. The Study of 
Nature. A Conversation with a Chinese. Plato's Dream. A Pleasure in 
Having no Pleasure. An Adventure in India. Jeannot and Colin. Travels 
of Scarmentado. The Good Bramin. The Two Comforters. Ancient 
Faith and Fable, i voL, post 8vo, 480 pp., with Portrait and 82 Illustrations. 
Paper, $1.00 .Extra vellum cloth, $1.50 Half calf, $3.00 

~ Micr omegas, voyage to Planet Saturn, by a native of Sirius ; 

What befell them upon this our Globe ; The Travelers Capture a Vessel *, 
What Happened in their Intercourse with Men. Also The World as it 
Goes ; The Black and the White ; Memnon the Philosopher ; Andres des 
Touches at Siam ; Barabec ; The Study of Nature ; A Conversation with a 
Chinese ; Plato's Dream ; Pleasure in having no Pleasure ; An Adventure in 
India ; Jeannot and Colin ; The Travels of Scarmentado ; The Good 
Bramin ; The Two Comforters ; Faith and Fable, by M. de Voltaire. Pa. 25c. 

— — Man of Forty Crowns. National Poverty ; An Adventure 
with a Carmelite ; The Man of Forty Crowns marries, becomes a father, 
and discants upon the monks ; A Great Quarrel ; A Rascal Repulsed ; also 
THE HURON; OR, PUPIL OF NATURE. The Huron arrives in 
France ; Is Acknowledged by his Relatives ; Is Converted ; Is Baptized ; 
Falls in Love ; Flies to his Mistress ; Repulses the English ; Goes to Court ; 
Is shut up in the Bastile, etc., by M. de Voltaire .Paper, 25 cts. 

" — — Sage and the Atheist, with introduction, including the Ad- 
ventures of Johnny, a Young Englishman, by Donna Las Nalgas. Also, 
THE PRINCESS OF BABYLON. Royal Contest for the Hand of 
Formosanta ; The King of Babylon convenes his Council and Consults the 
Oracle ; Royal Festival Given in Honor of the Kingly Visitors ; Formosanta 
Begins a Journey ; Aldea Elopes with the King of Scythla ; Formosanta 
Visits China and Scythla in Search of Amazan ; Amazan Visits Albion ; 
An Unfortunate Adventure in Gaul, etc., by M. de Voltaire Paper, 25 cts. 

— Zadig ; or. Fate. The Blind of one Eye ; The Nose ; The Dog 

and the Horse ; The Envious Man ; The Generous ; The Minister ; The 
Disputes and the Audiences ; The Woman Beater ; The Funeral Pile ; The 
Supper ; The Rendezvouz ; The Robber ; The Fisherman ; The Basilisk ; 
The' Combats; The Hermit ; The Enigmas, etc.; also The WHITE BULL; 
, a Satirical Romance. How the Princess Amasidia meets a Bull ; How She 
had a Secret Conversation with a Beautiful Serpent. The Seven Years Pro- 
claimed by Daniel are accomplished. Nebucl^adnezzer resumes the Human 
Form, Marries the Beautiful Amasidia, etc., by M. de Voltaire. Pa. 25c. 
^P" Sir John Lubbock names Zadig in his list of the 100 best books ever written. 

— ~~ — Voltaire : a Lecture. By Robert G. Ingersoll, with a portrait of 
the great French Philosopher and Poet, never before published. ...Paper, 25 c. 



— — Hugo's (Victor) Oration on Voltaire- French and 

English translation on opposite pages. With the Three Great Poems of 
Goethe, George Eliot and Longfellow 10 cts. 

Give us Mental Liberty and Intellectual Freedom rather 
than Blind Faith in Obsolete Dogmas. 



Old Spanish Romances. 

Illustrated by 48 beautiful Etchings by R. de Los Rios. 12 vols., 
crown 8vo, cloth $18.00; half calf extra, or, half morocco, $36.00. 

— -. ^^^ — — 

The History of Don Quixote of la Mancha. 

Translated from the Spanish of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra by 
Motteux. With copious notes (including the Spanish Ballads), and 
an Essay on the Life and Writings of Cervantes, by John G. Lockhart. 
Preceded by a Short Notice of the Life and Works of Peter Anthony 
Motteux, by Henri Van Laun. Illustrated with sixteen original 
2tchings by R. de Los Rios. 4 vols., post 8vo, 1,758 pp., |6.oo. 

Lazarillo de Tormes- (Life and Adventures of) 

Translated from the Spanish of Don Diego Hurtado De Mendoza, 
by Thomas Roscoe. Also, the Life and Adventures of 
Guzman d'AIfarache; or, The Spanish Rogue, by 
Mateo Aleman. Translated from the French edition of Le Sage, 
by John Henry Brady. Illustrated with eight original etchings by 
R. de Los Rios. 2 vols., post 8vo, 729 pp., $3.00. 

Asmodeus, or the Devil upon Two Sticks. 

Preceded by dialogues, serious and comic between Two Chimneys 
of Madrid. Translated from the French of Alain Rene Le Sage. 
Illustrated with four orginal etchings by R. de Los Rios, i vol., 
post 8 vo., 332 pp., I1.50. 

The Bachelor of Salamanca. ByLeSage. Trans 

lated from the French by James Townsend. Illustrated with four 
original etchings by R. de Los Rios. i vol., post 8vo, 400 pp., I1.50 

Vanillo Gonzales, or the Merry Bachelor. By 

Le Sage. Translated from the French. Illustrated with four original 
etchings by R. de Los Rios. i vol., post 8vo. 455 pp., $1.50. 

The Adventures of Gil Bias of Santillane, 

Translated from the French of Le Sage by Tobias Smollett. With 
biographical and critical notice of Le Sage by George Saintsbury. 
New edition, carefully revised. Illustrated with twelve original etch- 
ings by R. de Los Rios. 3 vols., post Svo. 1,200 pp., I4.50. 



Press Notices. 

** This prettily printed and prettily illustrated collection of Spanish Ro- 
mances deserve their welcome from all students of seventeenth century liter- 
ature."— 71^^ Times. 

*'A handy and beautiful edition of the works of the Spanish masters of 
romance We may say of this edition of the immortal work of Cer- 
vantes that it is most tastefully and admirably executed, and that it is em- 
bellished with a series of striking etchings from the pen of the Spanish artist 
De ios Rios."— Z?ti//)/ Telegraph. 

"Handy in form, thev are well printed from clear type, and are got up 
with ttnuch elegance: the etchings are full of humor and force. The ?ead- 
iaflrptsbiic have reason to congratulate tnemselves that so neat, compact, and 
well ???Tanged an edition of romances that can never die is put wi^io tJieir 
jpfea»3.Vi. The publisher has spared no pains witn th^ra."*' —Scotsman' 



Popular editions of ttie Spanisli JRomanoes. 
Asmodeus; or, the Devil upon Two Sticks. 

By A. R. Le Sage. With designs by Tony Johannot. Translated 
from the French. With fourteen Illustrations. Post 8vo, 332 pp., 
paper, 50 cts., cloth |i. GO. 

A new illustrated edition of one of the masterpieces of the world of fiction. 

The Bachelor of Salamanca, ByLeSage. Trans- 
lated from the French by James Townsend, with five illustrations 
by R. de Los Rios. 400 pp., paper, 50 cts., cloth |i.oo. 

Adventures related in an amusing manner. The writer exhibits remark- 
able boldness, force, and originality while charming us by his surprising- 
flights of imagination and his profound knowledge of Spanish character. 

Vanillo Gonzales, or the Merry Bachelor. By 

Le Sage. Translated from the French. With five illustrations by 
R. de Los Rios. 455 pages, paper 50 cts., cloth $1.00. 

Audacious, witty, and entertaining in the highest degree. 

The Adventures of Gil Bias of Santillane. 

Translated from the French of Le Sage by Tobias Smollett. With 
biographical and critical notice of Le Sage by George Saintsbury. 
New edition, carefully revised. With twelve illustrations by R. de 
Los Rios. 3 vols., post 8vo, 1,200 pp., cloth fo.oo. 
A classic in the realm of entertaining literature. 

Napoleon, Memoirs of the Life, Exile, and Conversations of the 
Emperor Napoleon, by the Count de Las Cases. With eight steel 
portraits, maps and illustrations. Four vols., post 8vo, each 400 
pp., cloth, I5.00, half calf extra, |io.oo. 

Yvith his Son the Count devoted himself at St. Helena to the care of the Em- 
peror, and passed his evenings in recording his remarks. 

Napoleon in Exile; or A Voice from 8t. Helena. 

opinions and Reflections of Napoleon on the Most Important Events 
in his Life and Government, in his own words. By Barry E. 
O'Meara, his late Surgeon. Portrait of Napoleon, after Delaroche, 
and a view of St. Helena, both on steel. 2 vols., post 8vo, 662 pp., 
cloth $2.50, in half calf extra, I5.00. 

Mr. O'Meara's work contains a body of the most interesting and valuable 
information — information the accuracy of which stands unimpeached by any 
attacks made against its author. The details in Las Cases' work and those 6t 
Mr. O'Meara mutually support each other. 

Shakespeare Portrayed by Himself. AReveia^ 

tion of the Poet in the Career and Character of one of his own Dra> 
matic Heroes. By Robert Waters, i vol., i2mo., cloth extra, I1.25, 

In this able and interesting work on Shakespeare, the author shows con 
clusively how our great poet revealed himself, his life, and his character. H 
is written in good and clear language, exceedingly picturesque, and is alto 
gather the best popular life of Shakespeare that has yet appeared. 

Cobbett's, (Wm.) English Grammar. Edited b> 

Robert Waters, i vol., i2mo., cloth $1.00. 

'•Of all the books on English grammar that I have met with, Cobbett'a 
seems to me the best, and, indeed, ^/le on/y one to be iised with advantage in 
teaching English. His style is a model of correctness, of clearness, and of 
strength. He wrote English with unconscious ease."— i?z<:/2^;-^ Grant White. 

**The best English grammar extant for self -instruction. "—5^/^^^/ Board 
Chronicle. " As interesting as a story-book."— //(22;/2/'^', 

" The only amusing grammar in the world- "~ Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, 

"Written with vigor, energy, and courage, joined to a force of understand- 
ing, a degree of logical power, and force of expression which has rarely bee^. 
equalled."- Saturday Keview, 




LIFE. 



A f>rose:=f»okni. 



— BY- 



Col. Rob'tG. Ingersoll. 



THIS world-famous monograph is without its peer in literature. 
It is a gem without a flaw. 

In this one piece of work, Mr. Ingersoll shows himself to be the 
poet, philosopher, painter, composer, and sculptor he really is, — a 
master of all arts, a teacher of all artists. It is an inspiration. A 
little bit of canvas, to be sure, but it contains the whole. With a 
touch of the brush— a point here, a line there, he paints it all. 
Each era, scene and circumstance is simply told in a word, a phrase, 
a line — and all the rest is suggested. Herein lies its greatness. 

Since its inception and first publication, the birth of a grandchild 
has put a new figure on the canvas, and it now appears with a portrait 
of the author with his ** daughter's babe upon his knee** — ^a dream 
and a realization. 

The engraver's and printer's art have blended strength and beauty 
in their work, faithfully producing the dual portrait, and entwining a 
wild rose border about it and the text, making altogether an exquisite 
work of art, suitable for elegant frame, for parlor, easel or mantel. 

Printed and littiograplied in color, and signed in auto- 
graph, fac-simile on heavy card board, size 12J x 16 inches. 

Sent by mail, carefully wrapped, on receipt of price, 50 cts. 

■»» 

Address, C. P. FARRELL. Publisher, 

(Ouly aMthorized publisTaex ol Col. lugersolVs tiooTts.) 
January, J897- (over.) 



yjiititiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiijiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiniitiiiiiiiin 

I New Books by Col. R. 6. Ingersoll. 

I "About the Holy Bible." New Lecture. Paper,25cts. . 

I Foundations of Faith, ANewLecture. Paper,25cts. 

= Some Reasons Why. a New Lecture. Paper, 25cts. 

= Myth and Miracle, now pubHshed for the first time. Paper, 25 cts. 

p Which Way? a New Lecture, revised and enlarged. Paper, 25 cts. 

i Ingersoll's Great Lecture on Shakespeare, a Master- 

= piece, containing a handsome half-tone likeness of Shakespeare from the Kes- 

= selstadt death mask. "Shakespeare was an intellectual ocean whose waves 

= touched all the shores of thought." Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

= Abraham Lincoln. Containingahandsomeportrait," a piece of sublime 

= eulogy." Paper, 25 cts. 

= Voltaire, with portrait, "He was the greatest man of his century, and did 

= more to free the human race than any other of the sons of men." Paper, 25 cts. 

= Liberty for Man, Woman and Child.. Has a fine photo-engrav- 

= ing of the Colonel and both his grandchildren, Eva and Robert; also the - 

= TRIBUTE TO HIS BBOTHEB. Paper, 25 cts. I 

E The Great Ingersoll Controversy, containing the Famous ' 

^ Christmas Sermon, by R. G. IngersolL Paper, 25 cts. E 

= IsSuicideaSin? Ingersoll's startling, brilUant and thrilllngly eloquent I 

= letters, which created such a sensation when published in the New York Worldf E 

= together with the replies of famous clergymen and writers. Paper, 25 cts. E 

E "Prose-Poems and Selections." a new and cheap edition, I 

= containing over 400 pages. The most elegant volume in Liberal literature. E 

= Good paper, wide margins, plain cloth, (sixth edition.) Price, f 1.50. E 

= Two Patriotic Addresses, the beunion address at mmwood* = 

= nis., September 5th, 1895, and the DECORA TION-DA Y ORA TION in New York* = 

= May 30tti, 1882. Both in one book. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. = 

= The Centennial Oration on the Deelaration of Indrpendence, = 

= July 4th, 1876, and the " VISION OF WAR,'' in one neat pamphlet. 10 cts. = 

E God in the Constitution, one of the best papers Colonel Ingersoll = 

= ever wrote. Price, 10 cts. = 

= The Christian Religion. By Col. B. a IngersoU and Judge Jeremiah E 

= S. Black. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. E 

i The Field^lngerSOll Discussion. Faith or Agnosticism? Paper, = 

= 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. ^ 

= The Ingersoll-GIadstone Discussion on Christianity. = 

= Never before published in book form. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. = 

i "Life of Jesus Critically Examined," by David Friedrich = 

= Strauss. This edition is translated from the fourth German edition by George = 

= Eliot, and contains 784 large octavo ^ages of solid reading. This is a very valua- = 

= ble work, one which the church wishes had never been written, but which it = 

= cannot controvert. One volume, |4.50. (Nowout of print and very haxd to get.) = 

~ Never sold before for less than |9.00. = 

E sf»e:ci-a.l noxice:. I 

= I have a few copies of Col. Ingersoll*s speech on " Hard Times and the Way 0ut»»* = 

= price, paper, 20 cts. Also a few copies of the " Conkling Memorial," with fine steel = 

= engraving. Price, doth, 50 cts. = 

= » = 

= Any or all the above Books sent prepaid upon receipt of price, = 

I C. p. KARRKLL, PUBLISHER, I 

I 220 Madison Avenue, New York. | 

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